Temporary Reopening of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna General Category Fishery

The Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT) General category fishery will reopen for three days—effective 12:30 a.m. on October 31 through 11:30 p.m. on November 2, 2018.

This action is intended to provide a reasonable opportunity to harvest the full annual U.S. BFT quota without exceeding it, while maintaining an equitable distribution of fishing opportunities across time periods; help achieve optimum yield in the BFT fishery; and optimize the ability of all permit categories to harvest their full BFT quota allocations.

This action applies to Atlantic tunas General category (commercial) permitted vessels and Atlantic Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Charter/Headboat category permitted vessels with a commercial sale endorsement when fishing commercially for BFT.