South Africa to host annual meetings of Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna

I have written to the publishers who should own the publishing rights to Biden's "Sea Angling fishes of the cape" and never received a response and by my research the book which is out of print should be older than the copyright extends for so I will as soon as I get chance start a thread with the contents of the book scanned in for everyone to read and understand what we have lost. The stories of tunny sound like fiction! If anyone has any objections, here is your chance to object, I will not post in a PDF format but post it in image files out of respect for the publisher as it will be easier to read online than to download.
Anyway the SBT stock is slowly rebuilding..in the times of before the stock collapse you could catch them from the side in hermanus. LOL. Reports of small fish (30lb class) in old days apparently could also be atlantic blackfin tuna which was positively ID'd once form false bay or surrounds. That local stock wiped out long ago. There are reports from knowledgeable folk of shoals of SBT of 500lb and shoals of yellowfin of 400-600lb a century ago and as far as we know the YF only get half that size at best so who knows what used to swim around our ocean!!!
The entire stock of SBT spawn in one large bay between NW Auz and indonesia and was wiped out in days past by netting the spawning stock there along with the big eye and their babies..They are appearing offshore more and more, only the large adults at the moment. They take twice as long to grow as YF but live twice as long or more and get twice the size..

https://www.daff.gov.za/docs/media/Media%20Alert%20on%20hosting%20of%20annual%20CCSBT%20Meetings.pdf


""SBT is one of the world’s high value fish species and its primary market is the Japanese Sashimi market. Subject to the high fat content of SBT flesh, premium prices are obtained in the Japanese Sashimi market. South Africa’s SBT allocation for the 2018-2020 fishing seasons is 450 tons.
The SBT stock is in a rebuilding phase and the 2017 assessment indicated that the stock’s spawning biomass level was about 13% of the initial spawning biomass. This is a significant improvement compared to the 5% level that the SBT stock was assessed to be at in 2011. The interim rebuilding target of 20% will likely be met long before the target year of 2035. The rebuilding of the stock has been guided by the CCSBT’s Management Procedure (MP), which is due to be replaced in 2020.""
 

Fin-S

Sealiner
I am not convinced that the large tuna were SBT. The ones we are getting now are for sure. But the older ones may well have been Atlantic bluefin. There is a record in the Grahamstown museum from JLB Smith of one confirmed ABT from Fish Hoek.

That would mean we are the only place on the globe to have both species.
 
I'll scan in the first few pages later when I get chance...There is one report in particular that talks about huge SBT and even bigger "yellowfin"..Now that's what I am curious about! What species could a 600lb yellowfin be, an atlantic bluefin looks completely different?! Yellowfin only get to 300lb off panama and atlantic islands as far as I know..the atlantic seamounts and islands is where our fish go when they get bigger 200lb plus apparently, where our tail go once bigger than 50lb..

Ja apparently a sample of a 30lb tuna from false bay was taken by an overseas uni, if I got the story right, that was atlantic blackfin tuna, and they share a range with the Atlantic bluefin so guessing you are right in saying that both bluefin species were probably here. I heard the same from folks that have spent lifetimes on the sea that the huge fish caught were most likely atlantic bluefin so I believe you guys..

We would have been at the extent of the basin for both species of bluefin, in terms of "basin effect", us and the bottom of south america, so when stock numbers dropped we would be the first to see them disappear. On the flip side when the stocks were "all time", we would be the place with the large adults of every species swimming around here as they are the species known for trans-ocean migrations for spawning and feeding/fattening up..Blows my mind! To be alive a hundred years ago with the gear and knowledge of today..with no industrial fishing fleets..when I die, thats where I want to go!!!
 

P.J.

Senior Member
interesting topic!
We caught one of 80kg in April 2016. The fish had a very high oil content, amazing and majestic creature indeed.
PS. In the future we will be releasing a SBT.
 

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Nice one PJ..Imagine what PE must have been like in the old days. The book refers to a "Port Elizabeth katonkel" which is actually referencing a king mackerel or couta! The best spot for large adults in the old days was the PE breakwater, offshore must have been ridiculous!
 

DocPhil

Senior Member
I feel the story of SBT in southern Australia is relevant here.
Stocks were decimated by overfishing in the 70s & early 80s. Strict conservation was brought in and today we are seeing an amazing recovery.
Whereas 10 years ago a few ‘barrels’ (fish over 60kg or so) a year were caught, this year dozens have come out already and the season has barely started.
Last year, a large shoal of YBT were spotted in my local bay, they’d been gone for at least 20 years. And barrels are more & more frequently caught right in front of Melbourne.
Truly a success story in fish stock recovery.
 
On that note, from the boys @ youfish TV..
SBT tuna are appearing where they have not appeared for decades. Here they find then just outside melbourne!?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaEXfkFmbmI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFGCGWzoUAU

And here they go looking for them south of Auz off tasmania. Looking at the topography in that range of the adults, I can see why they felt right @ home in false bay and around the cape and all it's peninsulas. Here's to looking forward to them returning to our waters, who's gonna be the first to catch one from the side in home waters again? I can't wait!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwiyPmahaQk
 

dp2

New member
These fish are incredible, and although still a way from being fully recovered the stock does seem to be responding well to stricter regulation - the making of a real fisheries success story if we continue on this path. We received an interesting recapture last year:

Date of tagging: 10-Jan-2006
Position: Southern Australia
Length: 71cm

Recap:
Capture date: 23/09/2018
Capture Location: Offshore Cape Agulhas
Length: 161cm

12 ½ years swimming across oceans before its luck ran out!
 
Very interesting...Just shows also how much slower they grow than yellowfin, 12 years is older than a yellowfin gets! And the SBT gets still twice longer than that in length..
 
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