Bluefish

U.S. Atlantic bluefish are jointly managed by NOAA Fisheries, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission under the Bluefish Fishery Management Plan (FMP). Bluefish landings (both commercial and recreational) peaked in 1986, but declined shortly after, which prompted the creation of the Bluefish FMP in 1990. Since its inception, the FMP has been amended numerous times – most notably its first amendment in 2000 that established a rebuilding plan to be completed in 2010. In 2009, the stock was officially considered rebuilt.

Bluefish are considered part of a mixed species fishery in the US Atlantic where other species are commonly caught in the bluefish commercial fishery including: spiny dogfish, striped bass, dusky smoothhound, and summer flounder. Bluefish are targeted in the commercial fishery primarily using gillnets, trawls, and handline gears. Among management measures included in the Bluefish FMP are:

• Permit requirements;
• Annual catch limits;
• Catch allocations (17 percent of the annual catch limit is allocated to the commercial fishery while 83 percent is allocated to the recreational fishery. Any unused recreational catch quotas can be applied to the commercial fishery).
• State-specific allocations that divide the total US Atlantic commercial catch limit into state-by-state quotas; and,
• Monitoring requirements (landings are monitored weekly and federally permitted vessels must submit monthly logbooks – with some states having mandatory reporting systems for state permitted vessels).

In 2016, commercial landings of bluefish were valued at US $2.93 million. According to a 2015 stock assessment, US Atlantic bluefish are not overfished nor subject to overfishing. Additionally, the total commercial harvest has been consistently below the annual catch limit since 2000.