BlueFin Tuna in SA waters
- Thread starter andrewb
- Start date
Whaler wrote:
Hi Whaler
South Africa is a part member of the commission for the conservation of southern bluefin tuna and the minister announced that SA will accede as a full member.
The fish are supposed to be down south at the edge of the EEZ on the continental shelf but they are showing up off Durban and north.
Hi Whaler
South Africa is a part member of the commission for the conservation of southern bluefin tuna and the minister announced that SA will accede as a full member.
The fish are supposed to be down south at the edge of the EEZ on the continental shelf but they are showing up off Durban and north.
Thunnus obesus, possibly doesnt get larger than 460lbs.
Wiki suggests smaller; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigeye_tuna
The biggest we landed off the mid Atlantic was in the region of 120kgs, which according to the Japanese Fishing Master was optimum size for sashimi, and fetched the highest price.
Larger fish seldom came out, leading the Nips to state that 120kg's was optimum size.
Larger than that would have to be Black's and Blues.
Wiki suggests smaller; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigeye_tuna
The biggest we landed off the mid Atlantic was in the region of 120kgs, which according to the Japanese Fishing Master was optimum size for sashimi, and fetched the highest price.
Larger fish seldom came out, leading the Nips to state that 120kg's was optimum size.
Larger than that would have to be Black's and Blues.
This is a very interesting article.
Some intersting facts:
1. About 6-7 years ago at Rooikraantz, there was a handful of us, Barry Rose hooked a yellowfin tuna, he did not land it, but the interesting thing is, that entire day we were throwing at YFT, getting chases and smashes, and there were very little tail. The Boat Overdraft, Glen, had found them too in the area, they were spotted in Buffels bay, not sure if they landed any. It was awesome to see and experience.
2. A few years prior that, there was a dorado off the kraantz, just swimming by, guys threw , but it wasnt too interested.
3. A few years later, a kayaker, who is on this Forum, hooked a longfin off the kraantz area/buffels area and landed it.
4. When I fished on a tuna commercial out of Hout bay, one trip, we could see some tuna, which certainly resembled bluefin, we had one take on the bait, but within seconds we were left with nothing.
I know its an old post, but is very interesting. I believe these fish may still frequent our waters in the deep, but said, Deep , not in the column we are catching the YFT. I almost appears that at some stage a current of sorts makes it way past SA and Cape point and couldve brought these fish to our waters. but it could also have been the rich chokka grounds we have too.
As Alan stated, the netters took care of the rest, even longliners, they were probably boat loading, but that stuff never sees the media or public. Would be nice to see them again, even if it is just one!
Some intersting facts:
1. About 6-7 years ago at Rooikraantz, there was a handful of us, Barry Rose hooked a yellowfin tuna, he did not land it, but the interesting thing is, that entire day we were throwing at YFT, getting chases and smashes, and there were very little tail. The Boat Overdraft, Glen, had found them too in the area, they were spotted in Buffels bay, not sure if they landed any. It was awesome to see and experience.
2. A few years prior that, there was a dorado off the kraantz, just swimming by, guys threw , but it wasnt too interested.
3. A few years later, a kayaker, who is on this Forum, hooked a longfin off the kraantz area/buffels area and landed it.
4. When I fished on a tuna commercial out of Hout bay, one trip, we could see some tuna, which certainly resembled bluefin, we had one take on the bait, but within seconds we were left with nothing.
I know its an old post, but is very interesting. I believe these fish may still frequent our waters in the deep, but said, Deep , not in the column we are catching the YFT. I almost appears that at some stage a current of sorts makes it way past SA and Cape point and couldve brought these fish to our waters. but it could also have been the rich chokka grounds we have too.
As Alan stated, the netters took care of the rest, even longliners, they were probably boat loading, but that stuff never sees the media or public. Would be nice to see them again, even if it is just one!
Tuna were caught inside Buffels this year as well - we didn't get any yellows, but got plenty of longies. Not that rare. SBT's are caught regularly in the deep. Largest one this season was 114.
Don't think the giants are there any more.The is enough gear set that they would have been picked up by now.
Don't think the giants are there any more.The is enough gear set that they would have been picked up by now.
This was an interesting thread. Any more history of the bluefin of the sixties era. ? That last pic of the seven hundred pounder is quite impressive. The dude with the pipe is definitely my Dad . Pity he has passed otherwise I could have got some info from him. I remember him telling me his rod butt broke on a 400 pounder when the fish was right at the boat. He reckoned it was like hooking into a freight train but never showed me any pics of them so its nice to see a pic from the sixties pitch up.
Large Bluefin Tunny were caught in Fish Hoek Bay just virtually in sight from Sunny Cove station in the sixties, one of 460 lbs by PM Hendrik Verwoed and famous Hollywood actor and comedian Danny Kaye. Often Brian Cohens and Hare Bros boats.Read Wicked Tuna Parts 1,2 and 3.
https://www.anglerpublications.co.za/fishing/2021/05/wicked-tuna-part-3/
https://www.anglerpublications.co.za/fishing/2021/05/wicked-tuna-part-3/
Dr halibut hoffman
Moderator
Thanks for posting!!
Dr halibut hoffman
Moderator
I'm holding my thumbs for stem cell therapy so my back will be like a teenagers again by the time the bluefin return to false bay. LOL... The stock is on the up and up..many were caught offshore last year for the first time in decades, they starting appearing again a few years back, we hooked something that could have only been a huge one of them a few years back but after more than 4 hours never got to even see colour..
I'm frothing...one day..they are coming..
I'm frothing...one day..they are coming..
Thunnus thynnus (thunnus) = Atlantic Bluefin Tuna. When they get over 400lbs they are known as giant bluefin tuna. They are native to the Atlantic and Med. These are the ones caught from Fish Hoek back in the 60's/70's and were part of a presumed "lost" shoal. Or maybe they were just following the mackerel and will come back again as the global population rebounds!
Thunnus maccoyii = Southern Bluefin Tuna. Grow up to 600lbs and native to most of the world's southern ocean. These are the ones we get in the deep in Cape Town on a more regular basis every year. Our best one last year was 115kgs.
There are many rumours of giant (presumed to be Atlantic bluefin) fish stripping reels and breaking sets of gear - especially far up the west coast, but I have not seen any proof yet, nor have any of the receiver stations picked up a ping from a tagged fish.
FYI, there are 76 stations around SA that could pick up a signal if a tagged giant was around.
Personally, I think we will see them return in the next 10 years as global warming accelerates and messes up traditional fisheries.
Thunnus maccoyii = Southern Bluefin Tuna. Grow up to 600lbs and native to most of the world's southern ocean. These are the ones we get in the deep in Cape Town on a more regular basis every year. Our best one last year was 115kgs.
There are many rumours of giant (presumed to be Atlantic bluefin) fish stripping reels and breaking sets of gear - especially far up the west coast, but I have not seen any proof yet, nor have any of the receiver stations picked up a ping from a tagged fish.
FYI, there are 76 stations around SA that could pick up a signal if a tagged giant was around.
Personally, I think we will see them return in the next 10 years as global warming accelerates and messes up traditional fisheries.
Dr halibut hoffman
Moderator
My mates father recalls also they used to catch these football tunas that looked like blackfin tuna or baby bluefin..Who knows what lost shoals or stocks were around... Around the same time the SBF started disappearing from false bay, their stock was being hammered or the java sea where they spawn by the Aussies and Japs and others. I had commercial mates last season one day got stuck into the adult SBF, they were catching longies then suddenly the longies disappeared and then the deep line went off, and then the others, biggest they got was just shy of 150 kg I think, they had 3 on at once at one stage in that fight..
As well I can't recall of it was those mates or others, or if there were two reports, of guys last season that got stuck into a massive shoal of unknown smaller tunas that could only really be juvenile SBF, which then leads one to ask what the hell they were doing there on South West coast africa if the only known spawn ground is halfway around the world in the Java Sea and there are no currents that will deliver them there. My guess is that a stock of large adults made its way to the cape to fatten up as they traditionally used to, now that there are large adults in the oceans again with the stock slowly rebounding over the last 20 years, and when it came time to spawn they followed the leader as fish do in a shoal, and hit africas west coast and went north as they normally would in Auz, and they found a bay that was suitable and spawned as they normally would. Maybe there used to be sort of eastern and western stocks that overlapped or were common stocks, like it is with the Thunnus Thunnus up north? Maybe just maybe that was what went down in the old days with those rugby ball tunas that would get caught in false bay and the large adults off Fish Hoek, was that the stock was in such good shape that with basin effect, that out here and at Chile there would still be good numbers with the basin overflowing. So now with the basin filling once again with fish, some might have decided things are crowded and stayed to make a new coast their permanent home. On the otherhand we will never know, maybe the small fish were a lost stock of blackfin made its way over form Brazil?
We've seen that in the last couple of years with yellowtail, patterns change all the time, that as the stock is slowly rebounding and the numbers improving up the east coast of the adult fish because of increased numbers of younguns, we've seen that separate stocks of malkoppie size fish, not yet of spawn size, that are not bothering to move further south to the Agulhas banks or to and around cape point to the west coast to ysterfontein which would be their traditional area to grow up but rather have been trying to hold on structure in the east coast bays.. Also there seems to be a class fish missing that coincides with the thousands of tons of babies removed by trekkers in the height of the elnino 4-2 years ago. Maybe, but probably not, they got tired of being trekked in cape town or being caught by the hundreds of tons off the southern cape banks, but who knows..but what we have noticed is each winter a massive stock of smaller/younger than normal for the area, fish are staying behind in the east coast bays all the way up the transkei, and remaining there through the summer and winter, and that never traditionally happened according to the old timers. Normally would just be the large tail in those waters in summer resident with malkoppies coming past beginning and end season, but far less of them than in Cape town and west coast etc..We've had 3 years almost of a same stock of tail just parking off on a set of reefs for the whole year..now catching the same fish as adults 10kg plus 3 years later..all shoaling with a new stock/wave of babies everyyear that dont seem to have any inclination to move further south with the current as they normally would..Normally in winter only strandlopers, large lone fish stay behind and rest goes north to spawn, but last few years massive shoals of 2-4 kg fish are moving in and holding and not going anywhere for months at a time..
Point is none of this is set in stone..fish would be everywhere in the ocean if it was not for currents and oceans of unfavorable waters cutting them off..Leervis are comfortable in waters just a degree or two above tail and that allowed them to occur in the Med all the way down the west african coast to here, with a small band of no occurrence in the tropical west coast of Africa, where they must have made it across at some point to get here, or get to the Med, blacktail occur from here to there but yellowtail never made it across the tropical band of water at the equator to get to the med..The Med full of tail would be something even more epic than it is!
Anyway back to Bluefin..We will never know what went down in the past with the stocks and their disappearance, completely, but who knows what will happen in the future..I am holding thumbs!!
As well I can't recall of it was those mates or others, or if there were two reports, of guys last season that got stuck into a massive shoal of unknown smaller tunas that could only really be juvenile SBF, which then leads one to ask what the hell they were doing there on South West coast africa if the only known spawn ground is halfway around the world in the Java Sea and there are no currents that will deliver them there. My guess is that a stock of large adults made its way to the cape to fatten up as they traditionally used to, now that there are large adults in the oceans again with the stock slowly rebounding over the last 20 years, and when it came time to spawn they followed the leader as fish do in a shoal, and hit africas west coast and went north as they normally would in Auz, and they found a bay that was suitable and spawned as they normally would. Maybe there used to be sort of eastern and western stocks that overlapped or were common stocks, like it is with the Thunnus Thunnus up north? Maybe just maybe that was what went down in the old days with those rugby ball tunas that would get caught in false bay and the large adults off Fish Hoek, was that the stock was in such good shape that with basin effect, that out here and at Chile there would still be good numbers with the basin overflowing. So now with the basin filling once again with fish, some might have decided things are crowded and stayed to make a new coast their permanent home. On the otherhand we will never know, maybe the small fish were a lost stock of blackfin made its way over form Brazil?
We've seen that in the last couple of years with yellowtail, patterns change all the time, that as the stock is slowly rebounding and the numbers improving up the east coast of the adult fish because of increased numbers of younguns, we've seen that separate stocks of malkoppie size fish, not yet of spawn size, that are not bothering to move further south to the Agulhas banks or to and around cape point to the west coast to ysterfontein which would be their traditional area to grow up but rather have been trying to hold on structure in the east coast bays.. Also there seems to be a class fish missing that coincides with the thousands of tons of babies removed by trekkers in the height of the elnino 4-2 years ago. Maybe, but probably not, they got tired of being trekked in cape town or being caught by the hundreds of tons off the southern cape banks, but who knows..but what we have noticed is each winter a massive stock of smaller/younger than normal for the area, fish are staying behind in the east coast bays all the way up the transkei, and remaining there through the summer and winter, and that never traditionally happened according to the old timers. Normally would just be the large tail in those waters in summer resident with malkoppies coming past beginning and end season, but far less of them than in Cape town and west coast etc..We've had 3 years almost of a same stock of tail just parking off on a set of reefs for the whole year..now catching the same fish as adults 10kg plus 3 years later..all shoaling with a new stock/wave of babies everyyear that dont seem to have any inclination to move further south with the current as they normally would..Normally in winter only strandlopers, large lone fish stay behind and rest goes north to spawn, but last few years massive shoals of 2-4 kg fish are moving in and holding and not going anywhere for months at a time..
Point is none of this is set in stone..fish would be everywhere in the ocean if it was not for currents and oceans of unfavorable waters cutting them off..Leervis are comfortable in waters just a degree or two above tail and that allowed them to occur in the Med all the way down the west african coast to here, with a small band of no occurrence in the tropical west coast of Africa, where they must have made it across at some point to get here, or get to the Med, blacktail occur from here to there but yellowtail never made it across the tropical band of water at the equator to get to the med..The Med full of tail would be something even more epic than it is!
Anyway back to Bluefin..We will never know what went down in the past with the stocks and their disappearance, completely, but who knows what will happen in the future..I am holding thumbs!!