Hawaii’s longline fishermen will hit their annual 3,138-ton limit for bigeye tuna in the western and central Pacific by early September, according to a forecast Wednesday by federal fishery biologist Christofer Boggs.
But that’s not expected to stop them from setting their hooks for more ahi through the end of the year. In fact, the longliners may be able to haul in another 3,000 tons thanks to deals that let them attribute additional catch to certain U.S. territories in exchange for payments to a federally managed fund.
Environmental groups are concerned that the quota-sharing agreements are leading to overfishing.
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