Blue Fin Tuna Catch and Release Recreational Fishery: 2024
Published 19 March 2025
© Crown copyright 2025
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/bluefin-tuna-catch-and-release-recreational-fishery-crrf-2024/blue-fin-tuna-catch-and-release-recreational-fishery-2024
1. About this publication
This is an official statistics release.
Starting in 2024, an English Catch and Release Recreational Fishery (CRRF) for Blue Fin Tuna (BFT) has been opened. The fishery allows permitted vessels to be used to ‘catch and release’ BFT by rod and line, for a defined period in English waters. As this fishery operates within English waters, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) is responsible for issuing permits for the fishery, as well as monitoring fishing activity to enable sustainable marine activities and support UK economic growth.
Permit numbers are proportionate to the amount of quota available to cover incidental BFT mortalities. To receive and maintain their permit, vessel owners are obligated to submit data about their trips and associated catch. The MMO collects these data for operational purposes, including monitoring and managing the fishery throughout the season. The MMO is also required to submit data to the International Council for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) to fulfil the UK’s reporting obligations as a contracting party.
These official statistics contain details about fishing activity from the Blue Fin Tuna CRRF in the 2024 season.
The 2024 season started 3 August 2024 and ran through until the 31 December 2024, meaning the season was open for 21 weeks and 4 days. The 2024 season was the first this CRRF for BFT has been in operation. It followed a three-year scientific research programme from the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) into BFT in the South West of England.
This report contains charts and commentary to describe activity reported within the CRRF in 2024. The accompanying datasets are available here.
2. Highlights
- The 2024 Blue Fin Tuna Catch and Release Recreational Fishery ran from 3 August 2024 to 31 December 2024. The 2024 season lasted for 21 weeks and 4 days.
- Of the 93 permitted vessels, 81 were active at least once during the 2024 season
- These vessels made 1,014 trips in total. Of those, there were 838 trips (83.0%) where at least one Blue Fin Tuna was caught successfully.
- In total, 3,359 Blue Fin Tuna were caught throughout the 2024 season, with an average of 3.3 Blue Fin Tuna per trip.
- The average length of the Blue Fin Tuna caught was 167.7cm, and the average estimated weight was 95.5kg.
- The majority (98.7%) of Blue Fin Tuna were released in a good to excellent condition. The reported mortality rate before release was 0.21% of all Blue Fin Tuna caught.
3. Vessel Insight
In this section, statistics related to the vessels permitted as part of the BFT CRRF are presented.
3.1 Vessel Types
Charter Vessels in the CRRF were vessels that took paying anglers out on trips targeting BFT. Private Vessels in the CRRF were vessels that were for private use and did not take paying anglers on trips.
There were 93 vessels granted permits for the 2024 BFT CRRF season. There were 62 charter vessels and 31 private vessels.
A total of 81 vessels reported at least one trip (52 charter vessels and 29 private vessels). In total, 87.10% of all permitted vessels were active.
Activity was reported on 111 days, or 74.00% of the 150 days that the fishery was open were utilised. The intensity of activity varied through the season, with most activity occurring between August and October.
3.2 Success rates
A hookup is where a Blue Fin Tuna has been caught.
A vessel is considered** successful** if they reported at least one successful hookup during the season. A vessel is unsuccessful if they reported activity, but no successful hookups during the season.
A vessel is considered inactive if no activity has been reported.
4. Season Outcomes
Overall, 85.19% of all active vessels (69 out of 81 vessels) were successful in the 2024 season. There were 12 vessels that were unsuccessful (14.81% of all active vessels), and 12 vessels were inactive.
86.54% of active charter vessels (45 out of 52 vessels) were successful in the 2024 season. There were 7 vessels that were unsuccessful (13.46% of active charter vessels), and 10 vessels were inactive.
For private vessels, 82.76% (24 out of 31 vessels) were successful in the 2024 season. There were 5 vessels that were unsuccessful (17.24% of active charter vessels), and two vessels were inactive.
Table 1. Outcomes by Vessel Group for the 2024 CRRF season.
| Category | Successful | Unsuccessful | Inactive | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charter | 45 | 7 | 10 | 62 |
| Private | 24 | 5 | 2 | 31 |
| Total | 69 | 12 | 12 | 93 |
Figure 1.a: Outcomes for the Catch and Release Recreational Fishery in 2024.
Figure 1.b: Outcomes by Vessel Group for the Catch and Release Recreational Fishery in 2024.
5. Gear Usage
5.1 Gear types
Gear types permitted for the BFT CRRF are restricted to rod and line gear types only. Multiple gear types can be used across a single trip.
Spreader Bars are a rod and line fishing gear that tows multiple lures in a row perpendicular to the line, with one of the lures containing a hook.
Daisy Chains are a rod and line fishing gear that tow a string of lures on a single line with the final lure containing a hook.
The main rod and line gears were small spreader bars (under 36 inches across), large spreader bars (over 36 inches across), dead bait, live bait, single lure, daisy chains, and live bait.
Over the 1,014 trips, six main gear types were reported to have been used. The three most common gear reported were large spreader bars (553 trips), small spreader bars (455 trips) and dead bait (211 trips). Trips that reported gears outside of the six main categories were grouped into ‘Other’ (17 trips), which were reported on the fewest number of trips. For trips that declared the gear as ‘Other’, permit holders described the gear in a free text box. Responses here referenced rod and line gears such as “poppers” and “casting tackle”.
Table 2. Gear type by number of trips in the 2024 Catch and Release Recreational Fishery for Blue Fin Tuna.
| Gear Type | Number of Trips |
|---|---|
| Large Spreader Bars (over 36 inches) | 553 |
| Small Spreader Bars (under 36 inches) | 455 |
| Dead Bait | 211 |
| Live Bait | 171 |
| Single Lure | 113 |
| Daisy Chains | 34 |
| Other | 17 |
Note that the sum of the gear counts exceeds the total number of trips as multiple gears can be used on the same trip
6. Trips
In the 2024 season, 1,014 complete trips were reported by active vessels.
The number of trips per month varied through the season, with the highest number of trips reported in September (361 trips) and the lowest reported in December (7 trips).
Table 3. Number of trips per month for the 2024 Catch and Release Recreational Fishery for Blue Fin Tuna.
| Month | Number of Trips |
|---|---|
| August | 199 |
| September | 362 |
| October | 323 |
| November | 123 |
| December | 7 |
The number of trips each week also varied throughout the season, with the highest number of trips occurring in week 13 (26 October – 1 November 2024) (119 trips) and the lowest occurring week 21 (21-27 December 2024, 0 trips).
The average number of trips per week throughout the 2024 season was 46.
Figure 2.a: The number of reported trips per week in the 2024 Catch and Release Recreational Fishery for Blue Fin Tuna.
For charter vessels, week 8 (21-27 September 2024) had the greatest number or trips (87 trips) and week 21 (21-27 December 2024) had the lowest number of trips (0 trips). The average number of charter vessel trips per week over the 2024 season was 37.
For private vessels, week 13 (26 October – 1 November 2024) had the greatest number of tips (41 trips) and weeks 19-22 (7-31 December 2024) all had 0 trips. The average number of private vessel trips per week over the 22-week season was 9.55 and the median number of trips per week was 7.00.
Figure 2.b: The number of reported trips per week by vessel group in the 2024 Catch and Release Recreational Fishery for Blue Fin Tuna.
7. Hookups
7.1 Hookup
A hookup is when a Blue Fin Tuna takes the hook and is effectively caught alongside the vessel by the fisher.
In the 2024 season, the total number of reported hookups was 3,359.
The number of hookups per month varied throughout the season, with the highest number of hookups in the month of September (1,331 hookups) and with the lowest in the month of December (3 hookups).
Table 4: Number of hookups reported by month in the 2024 Catch and Release Recreational Fishery for Blue Fin Tuna.
| Month | Number of hookups |
|---|---|
| August | 556 |
| September | 1,331 |
| October | 1,178 |
| November | 291 |
| December | 3 |
The weekly number of hookups also varied throughout the season, with the highest number of hookups occurring in week 8 (21–27 September 2024, 409 hookups) and the lowest number of hookups occurring in weeks 19-21(7-27 December 2024) (0 hookups).
Figure 3.a: The number of reported hookups by week in the 2024 Catch and Release Recreational Fishery for Blue Fin Tuna.
For charter vessels, week 8 (21-27 September 2024) had the greatest number or hookups (381 hookups) and weeks 19-21 (7-27 December 2024) had the lowest number (0 hookups). For private vessels, week 13 (26 October to 1 November 2024) had the greatest number of hookups (42 hookups) and weeks 17-22 (23 November to 31 December 2024) had the lowest number (0 hookups).
Figure 3.b: The number of reported hookups per week by vessel group in the 2024 Catch and Release Recreational Fishery for Blue Fin Tuna.
8. Trip Success Rates
8.1 Success Rate
A trip is considered successful if there has been at least one successful Blue Fin Tuna hookup during that trip.
The trip success rate is calculated as the number of successful trips as a percentage of total trips.
Of the 1,014 trips, 838 were successful in terms of reporting hookups, giving the CRRF a success rate of 83% in the 2024 season. The trip success rate varied throughout the season, with the greatest success rate occurring in September and October (86% success rate), and the lowest success rate occurring in December (43% success rate).
Table 5: The monthly total trips, successful trips and success rate in the 2024 Catch and Release Recreational Fishery for Blue Fin Tuna.
| Month | Total Trips | Successful Trips | Success Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| August | 199 | 159 | 80% |
| September | 361 | 309 | 86% |
| October | 323 | 277 | 86% |
| November | 123 | 90 | 73% |
| December | 7 | 3 | 43% |
At the weekly level, there was variation to the success rate throughout the season. The success rate peaked in week 12 (19-25 October 2024) of the season, at 95%. Broadly speaking, the success rate remained relatively stable up to week 12 of the season. From week 12, the success rate showed a general decrease.
Figure 4: Weekly success rates through the 2024 Catch and Release Recreational Fishery for Blue Fin Tuna. The dark line represents the rolling 4-week average success rate throughout the season
A rolling 4-week average was calculated for success rate throughout the season, the average runs from week 2 to week 20 (10 August to 20 December 2024), where the point shown for week 2 is the success rate for weeks 1 to 4 (3-30 August 2024). The rolling average ends at week 20 as there were no trips reported in week to 21 (21-27 December 2024) therefore, a rolling average cannot be calculated beyond this point.
9. Catch per Unit Effort
Catch per Unit Effort (CPUE) is calculated as the number of BFT hookups to the number of trips.
Cefas’ Catch And Release Tag (CHART) programme ran each year between 2021 to 2023. It consisted of 15 to 25 vessels per year, amounting to 1,655 trips and 3,803 hookups in total.
Comparisons have been made between the results from the 2024 season’s CRRF and Cefas’ CHART programme to provide context for statistics to the closest comparable fishery.
More details about CHART programme can be found on Cefas’ website.
There were 3,359 hookups in 1,014 trips, giving the CRRF a CPUE of 3.31 BFT per trip in the 2024 season. This is above the English CHART programme’s 2023 CPUE of 2.44, as well as that of the programme as a whole which was 1.99. However, this increase relative to last year is in line with the year on year raise in CPUE that has been observed in the English CHART programme.
The CPUE varied throughout the season, with the greatest CPUE occurring in September (3.69 BFT per trip) and the lowest CPUE occurring in December (0.43 BFT per trip).
Table 6. The monthly total trips, hookups and catch per unit effort in the 2024 Catch and Release Recreational Fishery for Blue Fin Tuna.
| Month | Total Trips | Hookups | Catch per Unit Effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| August | 199 | 556 | 2.79 |
| September | 362 | 1,331 | 3.68 |
| October | 323 | 1,178 | 3.65 |
| November | 123 | 291 | 2.37 |
| December | 7 | 3 | 0.43 |
There was variation to the CPUE by week throughout the season. The CPUE peaked in week 10 (5-11 October 2024) of the season, at 4.61 BFT per trip. Broadly speaking, the CPUE increased to week 10 of the season, with a downwards trend until the end of the season. This is broadly consistent with reported trends in the 2022 and 2023 seasons of the English CHART programme.
Figure 5: Weekly Catch per Unit Effort through the 2024 Catch and Release Recreational Fishery for Blue Fin Tuna. The dark line represents the rolling 4-week average catch per unit effort throughout the season
A rolling 4-week average was calculated for CPUE throughout the season, the average runs from week 2 to week 20 (10 August to 20 December 2024), where the point shown for week 2 is the average CPUE for weeks 1 to 4 (3-30 August 2024). The rolling average ends at week 20 as there were no trips reported in week to 21 (21-27 December 2024) therefore, a rolling average cannot be calculated beyond this point.
9.1 Fishery Biological Insight
In this section, metrics from individual fish are reported to provide insight on the population dynamics of reported BFT via the CRRF.
10. Length
Straight Fork Length (SFL) is the straight line distance from the tip of the upper jaw to the fork of the tail.
SFL was recorded and submitted by vessel owners.
SFL measurements were submitted for 3,312 (98.60%) of all BFT caught in the 2024 season.
The average reported SFL in the 2024 season was 167.67cm. The shortest length reported was 25.40cm and the longest was 325.12cm.
In comparison, the average reported SFL in the CHART programme was 165.00cm in 2023 and the average SFT of all BFT caught in the years 2021 to 2023 was 177.00cm.
Figure 6: The number of Blue Fin Tuna to SFL classes in the 2024 Catch and Release Recreational Fishery for Blue Fin Tuna.
SFL varied through the season, with the weekly mean SFL decreasing as the season progressed up to week 16 (16-22 November 2024). The average SFL increased after week 16, but it should be noted that the number of BFT measured in each week from this point was very low (less than 30).
This decrease in average reported SFL through the season is broadly in line with the reported trends in weekly mean SFL in the English CHART programme.
Figure 7: Average estimated SFL, by week through the 2024 Catch and Release Recreational Fishery for Blue Fin Tuna. The dark line represents the rolling 4-week average SFL (cm) throughout the season
A rolling 4-week average was calculated for SFL throughout the season, the average runs from week 2 to week 17 (10 August to 29 November 2024), where the point shown for week 2 is the average SFL for weeks 1 to 4 (3-30 August 2024). The rolling average ends at week 17 as there were no BFT caught in weeks 19 to 21 (7-27 December 2024) therefore, a rolling average cannot be calculated beyond this point
11. Weight
Round Weight (RWT) has been estimated using a conversion from SFL.
Further details about this conversion, including the calculation used, can be found in the supporting documentation for this release.
The average estimated RWT of BFT caught in the 2024 season was 95.50kg. The lightest BFT was estimated as 0.39kg and the heaviest was 597.34kg.
Figure 8: The number of Blue Fin Tuna by estimated round weight classes in the 2024 Catch and Release Recreational Fishery for Blue Fin Tuna.
Estimated RWT also varied through the season, reflecting what was observed in the SFL. This is to be expected, given the RWT is estimated using the reported SFL.
The weekly mean RWT decreased as the season progressed up to week 16 (16-22 November 2024). There was an increase as of week 16, but as for SFL, it should be noted that the number of BFT measured in each week as of week 16 was very low (less than 30).
This decreasing mean SFL through the season is broadly in line with the reported trends in weekly mean SFL in the English CHART programme.
Figure 9: Average estimated RWT, by week, through the 2024 Catch and Release Recreational Fishery for Blue Fin Tuna. The dark line represents the rolling 4-week average estimated RWT (kg) throughout the season
A rolling 4-week average was calculated for estimated RWT throughout the season, the average runs from week 2 to week 17 (10 August to 29 November 2024), where the point shown for week 2 is the average estimated RWT for weeks 1 to 4 (3-30 August 2024). The rolling average ends at week 17 as there were no BFT caught in weeks 19 to 21 (7-27 December 2024) therefore, a rolling average cannot be calculated beyond this point.
12. Outcomes
Outcomes
Permitted skippers / vessel owners of the CRRF must notify the permitting authority whether BFT are released alive or dead.
This is defined under statutory instrument 2024/655 The Sea Fisheries (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2024.
Permit holders reported the release status of the BFT which have been grouped into categories: Alert, Lethargic, and Dead.
The mortality rate is the number of BFT reported as ‘dead’ as a percentage of total hookups.
The majority of BFT caught in the 2024 CRRF were reported as being released in an ‘alert’ condition (3,314 out of 3,359 hookups). A further 38 BFT were reported as being released in a ‘lethargic’ condition and 7 were reported as dead.
Table 7: The number of BFT by release status for the 2024 Catch and Release Recreational Fishery for Blue Fin Tuna.
| Release Status | Number of BFT |
|---|---|
| Alert | 3,314 |
| Lethargic | 38 |
| Dead | 7 |
The mortality rate of BFT in the 2024 CRRF was 0.21%.
In comparison, the 2021-2023 mortality rate from CHART programme was 0.70%.
The total estimated RWT of those BFT reported as ‘dead’ in the 2024 CRRF was 520.17kg, or 0.52 tonnes. This equals 3.25% of the total quota allocated to the BFT CRRF in 2024 (16.00 tonnes).
The smallest BFT reported as ‘dead’ had an estimated RWT of 35.49kg, while the largest had an estimated RWT of 183.85kg. The average estimated RWT of BFT reported as ‘dead’ was 74.31kg.