Another step closer to an English Bluefin Catch and Release Recreational Fishery.
Following the success of three years of English CHART, (lobbied for and designed by this group of anglers and skippers), and two rounds of public consultation, on December 7th last year the Fisheries Minister announced his intention to move forward and establish a recreational bluefin tuna catch and release fishery framework for the UK for 2024 onwards.

The framework required changes to the Fisheries Act that are progressing through the required channels currently, and when finalised will allow any of the four home nations to set up a CRRF in their own waters.
At the same time as that announcement, the Minister also confirmed that DEFRA would be working specifically on developing the design for an English CRRF to take advantage of that new framework.

(Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland have yet to decide what they will do this year).
UKBFTA, along with the Angling Trust and PBA have been working with DEFRA and the MMO to turn that intention into a workable fishery.
We published a ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ document late last year to try and address some of the most common questions we were getting. A lot of the detail regarding eligibility for licenses, application process, allocation process etc are still being worked on, so we can’t add much right now to that FAQ doc regarding a lot of the details of the fishery.
HOWEVER…..
Last week was the deadline for DEFRA to submit to ICCAT their annual bluefin ‘fishing plan’ which would set out how the UK intended to divide up its 63t (66t this year with some small ‘carryover’) for 2024.
One of our key objectives since we started our campiagn back in 2018 has been to ensure that any fishing opportunities for Bluefin treated the recreational sector equitably and did not unfairly favour other interests.

We have no issue with a well run artisanal rod and line commercial fishery, but we do generate many many multiples of revenue per tonne of quota used (for incidental mortality in a catch and relase fishery), as proven by both international research and also the CEFAS/DEFRA studies on the socio-economic benefits of the CHART program.

Given that, we have consistently argued that the recreational sector should be ensured of enough quota and support to establish an optimal sized fishery for the UK.
In previous years DEFRA have only revealed the content of the fishing plan once it had been posted on the ICCAT website, and it is still ‘provisional’ until ICCAT sign off on all fishing plans in early March.
We were pleasantly surprised therefore to see that the MMO gave some insight into the plan yesterday, perhaps ‘jumping the gun’ but still good to see.
If the MMO communication is confirmed by DEFRA and signed off by ICCAT, (which seems highly likely), the UK will be setting aside 16t of quota for recreational fishing activities (i.e. Catch and Release Recreational Fisheries) across the UK.
Since 2021, DEFRA has ringfenced 10t of the UK’s quota each year to set against CHART, and only last year allowed for the first time a pilot commercial fishery that was allocated 39t of quota for 10 vessels. (Our understanding is that around 50% of that was used in that fishery last year in its first year of operation).
The commercial quota allocation appears to be kept steady at 39t to continue that pilot this year.
If confirmed, the 16t allocation for the recreational sector represents two very significant milestones.
Firstly it shows that when we provide the evidence, (as the hard work of the CHART skippers, crew, anglers and campaigners did over a number of years), we CAN win equitable treatment with the Commercial sector.
Secondly, the 16t allocation will allow the four home nations to offer licensed fisheries to a significantly larger number of vessels than we saw in CHART, (a total of about 38-40 across all four nations last year).

We are also hopeful that this allocation will not only allow more charter vessels to obtain the required licenses, but also allow private vessel owners to do the same.
After five years of campaigning, and three years of CHART, we won the recreational fishery, based upon solid scientific evidence (whilst generating several million pounds of economic benefits for south west ports and communities).

We now appear to have the quota we deserve to scale this up, and it now just remains to resolve the fine print of the operational aspects in coming months.
As soon as we can confirm more details of the fishing plan and/or operational aspects of the fishery, we will let you know.
Tight lines for 2024……