NOAA has published a final rule to establish 2009 fishing year  specifications for the Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery, including quotas for each of the domestic fishing categories and effort controls for the
General category and Angling category. This rule implements an overall quota reduction that was adopted at the November 2008 meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, the
international body that manages tuna, swordfish and other highly migratory species in the Atlantic Ocean.

The final rule sets a recreational daily catch limit of one school bluefin tuna, plus one large school/small medium bluefin per vessel. This is the same recreational daily catch limit that was implemented during the 2008 season. NOAA had originally proposed a daily limit of one for the 2009 season, but raised the limit to two per day after reviewing comments from the fishing industry and analyzing the change for consistency with the bluefin tuna rebuilding program. The final rule maintains the three-bluefin per day limit for commercial fishermen in the general category.

For more information, go to http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-12654.pdf