Comment from MacDonald Sprague, SBCCA

February 26, 2009 Sarah McLaughlin HMS Management Division Office of Sustainable Fisheries (F/SF1) NMFS 55 Great Republic Drive Gloucester, MA 01930 re: “0648-AX12”- 2009 Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Quota Specifications and Effort Controls Dear Ms. McLaughlin: I have been involved in the tuna fishery for many years and the following expresses my urgent thoughts on the recent proposals to address current US/ICCAT quota issues and to prevent US quota loss in the future. I am writing to you to express my concern regarding the NMFS proposed rules pertaining to the 2009 bluefin tuna quotas. In light of ICCAT’s “use it or lose it” BFT quota policy, I ask that the NMFS assist US fishermen in every possibly way to help ensure that this natural resource remains with US fishermen. I ask that NMFS ease effort control measures so that the US fishermen, both recreational and commercial, have a better chance of achieving the 2009 US BFT quota as specified by ICCAT. Under the current NMFS BFT effort controls, the US doesn’t harvest nearly enough bluefin tuna to fill the ICCAT quota and unless something is done, transfer of US allocation to other nations will result in two very bad things—the permanent loss of United States allotted tuna catch (both commercial and recreational), and a significant reduction in tuna population via ICCAT approved commercial take of 45” by nations to whom that transfer is made. There are several measures that NMFS can take to help increase in the harvest of US fishermen, these include: 1. Increase the number of BFT retained recreationally from one fish to two fish per day. Specifically, one fish between 27” and <47” and one fish between 47” and <73”. 2. Allow the Charter/Headboat Category to fish both recreationally and commercially in the same day and on the same trip. 3. Allow the sale of BFT based on 65” CFL instead of 73”. 4. Allow General Category BFT fisherman to land up to three fish per day for each day of the trip (i.e. 2 days = 6 fish). I believe the implementation of these measures would help enable US fishermen to reach their allotted quota and help prevent ICCAT from transferring the quota to other countries. The recreational sport fishing interests of Americans are at stake along with thousands of US jobs. Please ease the NMFS effort controls associated with BFT and help the US retain this valuable natural resource. Sincerely MacDonald Sprague 367 Arrowhead Rd. Marshfield, MA 02050