THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 8, 1996 TAG: 9608080529
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BOB HUTCHINSON
LENGTH: 37 lines
Even that proverbial Philadelphia lawyer probably would have trouble keeping up with what's going on with bluefin tuna.
Just a few days ago a spokesperson for the National Marine Fisheries Service told me that all bluefin tuna fishing was banned south of the New Jersey/Delaware line - 38 degrees, 47 minutes north latitude, to be precise.
Now the agency has issued a ``clarifying statement.''
Seems that all bluefin fishing below that line isn't outlawed, although it might as well be.
If you operate a charter or headboat and if you have the required federal permit, and if you catch the fish on certain days of the week, you can still keep one large-medium or giant tuna per boat, per day.
This means one fish a day of at least 73 inches ``curved fork length,'' a measurement from the tip of the nose down the curved side of the fish to where the tail begins to fork.
The problem, at least for Virginia and North Carolina fishermen, is that a tuna of this size will weigh at least 235 pounds. None that large has been boated in Virginia this season and none in North Carolina since the run of giant tuna off Hatteras early this spring.
Sure, you never know when and where a big tuna, meeting this minimum, will appear. But Virginia has only produced a couple in recorded history.
As for which day of the week you can legally keep fish of these proportions, most Tuesdays and Sundays are excluded.
Simple, right?
Even if you have a Philly barrister aboard, you still might want to release such a fish on the slim chance that you catch one.
Chances are that by keeping it you still could somehow run into a legal hook.
Whatever happened to fishing for fun? by CNB