Marking the second reopening of the quota for the October-November subquota period.  The Atlantic Bluefin tuna fishery is set to reopen effective 12:30 a.m., Monday November 12th through 11:30 p.m., Friday November 16th, 2018.

This action is intended to provide a reasonable opportunity to harvest the full annual U.S. bluefin tuna quota without exceeding it, while maintaining an equitable distribution of fishing opportunities across time periods. In addition, it will help achieve optimum yield in the bluefin tuna fishery and optimize the ability of all permit categories to harvest their full bluefin tuna quota allocations.

NOAA Fisheries recently published a final “quota rule” that increased the baseline U.S. bluefin tuna quota and accordingly increased the subquotas for 2018, including an increase in the General category October through November. On October 4, 2018, NOAA Fisheries transferred 55 metric tons to the General category and closed the fishery. Since October 5, 2018, NOAA Fisheries has reopened the October through November subquota period two separate times for multiple days in an attempt to allow the available quota to be harvested.

Read the full NMFS release here