. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. Hungry LCI TUN Put Outer Banks in the Spotlight. By Carta Burgess "uring the past two winters, giant bluefin tuna have become the surprise hit of the season for recre- ational anglers off Cape Hatteras and Ocracoke. Weighing more than 300 pounds, these monster-sized fish have appeared in increasing concentrations around wreck sites in recent years. The prime locations are 12 to 24 miles from the beach in 80 to 100 feet of water, just inshore of the Gulf Stream. Although anglers may not target these tu
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. Hungry LCI TUN Put Outer Banks in the Spotlight. By Carta Burgess "uring the past two winters, giant bluefin tuna have become the surprise hit of the season for recre- ational anglers off Cape Hatteras and Ocracoke. Weighing more than 300 pounds, these monster-sized fish have appeared in increasing concentrations around wreck sites in recent years. The prime locations are 12 to 24 miles from the beach in 80 to 100 feet of water, just inshore of the Gulf Stream. Although anglers may not target these tuna for harvest during winter, catch-and-release is increasingly popular. "Charter boat fishing normally shuts down in October, and the captains go fishing commercially for yellowfin tuna or king mackerel in the winter," says Sea Grant fisheries agent Jim Bahen. But when news of the giants hit the grapevine, activity "; "Hatteras Island started bustling with people driving in and flying in to go fishing for these big fish," he says. "This past summer the word really got out, and now charter boats are starting to advertise it. There's no time and no other place that you'll see this large concentration of animals in shallow water. It's almost like they're in a ; The lure for recreational fishermen is even more attractive because this long-lived species is a strong, smart fish with notoriously picky eating habits. The hungry tuna off Hatteras are an enigma to seasoned anglers and biologists alike. But as tall tales of big tuna spread far and wide, so has the controversy and confusion over regulation of this species. Since the early 1980s, resource managers have enacted progressively stricter management of all classes of bluefin on the heels of heavy harvest throughout the 1970s. Bluefin stocks have declined by 80 percent since then, according to National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) data. The commercial season in North
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