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The tuna fleet overnighting on George's Bank.
George's Bank is lit up like a starry sky on every calm night right now as a multitude of boats ranging from small open console, to the larger cabin cruiser types and even a few slower moving work boats overnight on George's Bank waiting for the dawn. As daylight breaks the bluefin tuna can occasionally be seen jumping right out of the water and the boats make ready for a new day their wake-up calls to each other on the radio somewhat comical. (Waky, waky eggs and bacy) is one I found to be funny in the way it was spoken on channel 16.
The boats are pretty small to be out on George's even in summer. Their speed an unreliable safeguard if bad weather comes up quickly, which it is known to do. Some of the smaller vessels are rumored to be short on safety gear (life rafts and such) but that can't be confirmed. The fishermen on those boats are taking some risks taking their little boats so far from shore but a fisherman must make good when he has the chance these days. The bluefin tuna industry just fended off an attempt to put their target fish on the endangered species list.
The action taken to get a listing of endangered for Bluefin tuna came from a group called the Center for Biological Diversity and was based on the premise that the bluefin had declined almost 97 percent in the Western Atlantic. At first the claims seemed credible but the science was all based on old longline data using Catch = Abundance rather than actually attempting to asses the stock of fish. Catch = Abundance is a poor measure of a stock of fish because the level of effort changes due to various factors including attempts at conservation which would be seen as collapsing stocks of fish due to the lower catches.
So the tuna boats take their chances since the future is uncertain and it's a shame to waste a chance.
Of course they aren't exactly thrilled to see us fishing nearby. Mid-water herring vessels like the ones I work on have been pushed offshore by a relentless campaign of regulatory actions and propaganda largely led by tuna fishing organizations. The campaign not only pushed the mid-water vessels offshore but caused the financial loss of a number of vessels and the closure of some factories with a loss of all of those jobs to the communities. It is more than a little ironic that the claims that mid-water vessels scare away the tuna or break up the schools of fish that attract them is being proven false by the fact that the tuna fishery on George's has been so successful right along side of the herring fishery they so despise.
The tuna fishermen call herring, "Forage fish (even though they are considered level 3 predators by Nat Geo) and advocate for less fishing on them so that the tuna have more of them to eat thus raising the value of the tuna by raising fat content." Most herring fishermen just want to have a job.
The Kathrynn Leigh was steaming to the grounds and arrived along side of us.
Some of the tuna boats as seen during the day.
The Sea Wolf looking for fish.
The Western Venture passes a tuna boat.
