The documents listed below are important correspondence, copies of articles written by ABTA Board members, public comment letters to NOAA/NMFS regarding proposed rulemaking and important documents and powerpoint presentations authored by NOAA. These documents are provided to inform the fishing community and other interested parties regarding important upcoming issues as well as some of the activities of ABTA.
March 25, 2024
ABTA’s public comment on the Proposed Rule regarding Restricted Fishing Days and daily retention limits for the General Category bluefin tuna fishery. (view)
August 18, 2023
ABTA’s public comment on the Advance Notice of Proposed Rule regarding proposed changes to electronic reporting of catch in HMS fisheries. (view)
April 10, 2023
ABTA’s Op-Ed on Offshore Wind, published in Commercial Fishing News. (view)
October 9, 2022
ABTA’s letter to the ICCAT Advisory Committee advocating for an increase in the starting TAC developed from the new MSE for the West Atlantic fishery. (view)
August 7, 2022
ABTA’s letter to NOAA opposing the establishment of a National Marine Sanctuary in Hudson Canyon. (view)
December 1, 2021
ABTA’s report of the ICCAT 2021 annual meeting. (view)
November 9, 2021
ABTA’s letter to Alexa Cole, Acting U.S. Commissioner to ICCAT, stressing the need for timely stakeholder engagement, an integral part of the process of developing the Management Strategy Evaluation. (view)
October 31, 2021
ABTA’s letter to the ICCAT Advisory Committee supporting arguments for an increase in the present bluefin tuna quota for the West Atlantic fishery from 2,350 mt to 3,800 mt for FY 2022 and 2023. (view)
September 19, 2021
ABTA’s letter to Randy Blankenship, Chief, NOAA HMS Management Division, critiquing NOAA’s proposal for reallocating Purse Seine quota. (view)
March 21, 2021
ABTA’s letter to NOAA”s Southeast Fisheries Science Center highlighting problems in bluefin tuna recreational catch and abundance data. (view)
May 10, 2021
ABTA’s proposal to NOAA HMS for modifying catch reporting protocols in the General and Harpoon Categories in order to attain critically important and robust Catch Per Unit Effort data. (view)
June 15, 2019
ABTA’s talking points for the public comment meetings regarding the Proposed Rule for the Spatial Management/Weak Hook Initiative. (view)
May 28, 2019
NOAA’s Amendment 13 Scoping Powerpoint presentation from the Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel meeting held in Silver Spring MD on May 21-23, 2019. (view)
May 28, 2019
NOAA’s paper, “Amendment 13 Scoping Issues & Options”. (view)
May 28, 2019
NOAA’s Powerpoint presentation on the Pelagic Longline Bluefin Tuna Area-Based and Weak Hook Management proposals from the Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel meeting held in Silver Spring MD on May 21-23, 2019. (view)
May 28, 2019
NOAA’s “Draft Regulatory Amendment to Modify Pelagic Longline Bluefin Tuna Area-Based and Weak Hook Management Measures”. (view)
May 28, 2019
NOAA’s Amendment 12 Scoping powerpoint presentation, from the Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel meeting held in Silver Spring MD on May 21-23, 2019. (view)
May 28, 2019
NOAA’s Amendment 14 Scoping powerpoint presentation, from the Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel meeting held in Silver Spring MD on May 21-23, 2019. (view)
May 28, 2019
NOAA’s “Amendment 14 Scoping Document”. (view)
May 28, 2019
NOAA’s document, “Issues and Options for Research and Data Collection in Closed and Gear Restricted Areas in Support of Spatial Fisheries Management”. (view)
May 28, 2019
NOAA’s Powerpoint presentation, “Atlantic Bluefin Tuna: Recent Fishery Trends - Updated through 2018”, from the Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel meeting held in Silver Spring MD on May 21-23, 2019. (view)
November 27, 2018
ABTA’s press release, “Report from ICCAT Plenary Meeting in Dubrovnik, Croatia”. (view)
May 27, 2018
Memorandum from ABTA discussing a recent scientific paper which demonstrates that there are many more East Atlantic/Mediterranean bluefin found on Canadian fishing grounds than was previously understood. (view)
May 16, 2018
Important message from NOAA's HMS Management Division to General and Harpoon Category fishermen regarding upcoming bluefin tuna fishing season. (view)
April 12, 2018
Upcoming public comment meeting Gloucester MA April 18 - Background document (view)
March 19, 2018
ABTA's report of the March 7-9, 2018 meeting of the Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel (view)
March 19, 2018
ABTA's report of the March 5-6, 2018 meeting of the ICCAT Advisory Committee (view)
March 1, 2018
ABTA's powerpoint presentation from the ABTA meeting on February 24, 2018 in Westwood MA (view)
April 14, 2017
ABTA's press release on the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council's action on the proposal to create a marine sanctuary in Hudson Canyon (view)
March 6, 2017
ABTA's comment letter to the New England Fishery Management Council regarding peer review of the herring Management Strategy Evaluation (view)
January 27, 2017
ABTA's memo on the upcoming NEFMC herring meeting in Plymouth MA. (view)
December 11, 2016
ABTA's report on Pacific bluefin and Pacific bigeye tuna. (view)
November 29, 2016
ABTA's executive director, Rich Ruais, files his report on the 2016 annual ICCAT meeting. (view)
November 24, 2016
ABTA's memo containing Chris Weiner's announcement regarding a very important Herring meeting on Dec 7-8, 2016 in Portsmouth NH (View)
November 1, 2016
ABTA's memo containing NMFS' announcement of the closure of the Atlantic bluefin General Category fishery and HMS Charter/Headboat fishery (when fishing commercially) for the balance of 2016 (View).
October 22, 2016
Rich Ruais, ABTA's Executive Director, files his report on the latest West Atlantic bluefin tuna stock assessment update. (View)
October 14, 2016
ABTA's memorandum containing full text of today's announcement regarding changes to the daily retention limit for bluefin tuna and quota transfer of bluefin tuna for General Category (View).
October 7, 2016
ABTA's memorandum update providing current status of the General Category bluefin tuna quota for the balance of 2016. (View)
September 27, 2016
ABTA's memorandum discussing bluefin tuna quota for the balance of 2016. (View)
September 15, 2016
ABTA's response to the Obama Administration's announcement regarding the creation of an Atlantic Marine Monument (View)
June 14, 2016
ABTA's position paper on the Precautionary Approach (View)
June 9, 2016
Bluefin scientist Walt Golet's report on recent research using biological sampling of west Atlantic bluefin.(View)
May 22, 2016
ABTA letter to Tom Nies, New England Fishery Management Council, providing comments for the Management Strategy Evaluation of Atlantic herring. (View)
May 16, 2016
ABTA letter to President Obama regarding the proposed Atlantic Marine Monument. (View)
May 16, 2016
Management Strategy Evaluation: Dr. Andre Punt's powerpoint presentation from the Spring 2016 meeting of the Ocean Modeling Forum, entitled, "CATS, MICE and Small Pelagic Species in the California Current Ecosystem". (Download Attachment)
March 26, 2016
Cashes and Fippennanies Ledges Dropped from Atlantic Marine Monument proposal (View)
March 21, 2016
Memo from ABTA regarding sale of purse seine vessels (View)
March 6, 2016
Letter from ABTA regarding Purse Seine start date with attachments (View letter) (View Attachment 1) (View Attachment 2)
April 23, 2015
Letter from ABTA to NOAA commenting on Purse Seine Category start date for 2015(View)
March 9, 2015
Letter from ABTA to the New York City Council regarding proposed ban sale of bluefin tuna. (View)
March 6, 2015
Letter from Assistant Administrator of NOAA, Eileen Sobeck to ABTA. (View)
February 2015
“Fisherman’s Diary”: Article written by bluefin tuna fisherman Keper Connell for magazine,
Edible Seacoast. (View)
December 5, 2014
Letter from ABTA to office of New York City Council Member Margaret Chin regarding proposed NYC ban on purchase/sale of bluefin tuna. (View)
November 2014
Commercial Fisheries News, copy of Guest Column, “New bluefin stock assessment show stunning reversal in abundance” by Rich Ruais, Executive Director - ABTA. (View)
March 2014
Commercial Fisheries News Guest Column, “Bluefin tuna: Amendment 7 needlessly pits big boats against small boats” by Rich Ruais and David Schalit. (View)
January 27, 2014
Public Comment letter from Ralph Pratt to NMFS regarding Amendment 7. (View)
March 27, 2013
Amendment 7 Public Comment letter from Terri Biedeman of Blue Water Fishermans Association to National Marine Fisheries Service dated October 29,2012(View)
March 27, 2013
Amendment 7 Public Comment letter from Blue Water Fishermans Association to National Marine Fisheries Service dated July 15, 2012(View)
March 2013
ABTA Position Paper regarding Amendment 7 addressed to the National Marine Fisheries Service. (View)
January 6, 2012
Letter from Rich Ruais, Executive Director of ABTA to Eric Schwab, Assistant Administration of Fisheries, NOAA/NMFS regarding misleading information in the media stating that. ‘prices paid to bluefin tuna fishermen are high and the leading cause in driving bluefin to extinction’. (View)
August-February 2011/12
Series of articles in Commercial Fisheries News by Rich Ruais, “Requiem for ‘iconic bluefin’ extinction myth”. (View)
December 30, 2011
Letter from Terri Biedeman of Blue Water Fishermen’s Association soliciting support from the fishing community for the position of longline fishermen with regard to Amendment 7. (View)
August 2011
Organization for the Promotion of Responsible Tuna Fisheries newseletter article, “The IUCN Red List on Tuans; Is it scientific?" (View)
April 17, 2011
New York Times, Letter to the Editor in response to editorial, “Bluefin Tuna Catch a (Small) Break”, by Rich Ruais, Executive Director, ABTA. (View)
January 31, 2011
Response by Rich Ruais, Executive Director, ABTA to Wall Street Journal article, “Tuna Fight Muddies Waters Over Damage from BP Spill” of January 13, 2011. (View)