There are many techniques and equipment for fishing Bluefin Tuna such as the hand line, harpoon, the siege and the longline but almost all Americans of the Northwest Atlantic fishermen fishing with rod and reel.

According to figures from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the year 2011, the fishing rod and reel captured some 640 tonnes of bluefin tunaIn contrast to 74 tonnes caught with art longline and 29 tonnes taken with harpoons.

The proportion of fish that is caught with rod and reel is striking, especially if we consider that, unlike fishermen using purse seines, anglers caught Frontera one by one, and red tunas are

The history of Tuna Fishing rod and reel started in the early twentieth centuryThanks to the invention of heavy reel with disc brakes and a crank would not turn back, according to the Book of Dave Preble The Fishes of the Sea: Commercial and sport fishing in New England (The Fishes of the Sea: Commercial fishing and sport

The largest bluefin tuna that was caught in the North Atlantic with rod and reel was a specimen that was caught in Nova Scotia in 1979 and weighing 678 kilos. In the state of Massachusetts (USA) the record is in an incredible 557 kilograms fish that was captured in 1984.

The equipment needed for these Tuna fish is relatively expensive, since a rod and reel typically cost about $ 1,200, according to the publication New England Sportsman. Until recently, the most common among professional fishermen Bluefin Tuna was used lines and extra strong hooks. The 2001 book Tuna: Physiology, Ecology and Evolution (Tuna: physiology, ecology and evolution), edited by Barbara Block and Donald Ernest Stevens, notes that "The heaviest rig willing to bite the Tuna is used»And describes the usual equipment as a line of twenty kilos with circle hooks. However, over recent years, fishermen have increasingly been leaning towards lighter equipment --now called "Timid team» in the jargon of mundillo-, a change which they said was necessary because the tuna have learned not to bite the computer they used before. The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (a kind of department of Fisheries Massachusetts) restarts use a quality reel combo line that has a resistance of 90 kilos.

According to a website dedicated to the sport fishing, a big red tuna can be hooked two hundred yards of line in his attempt to get away from the ship.

It sometimes happens that vessels fishing for yellowfin tuna and other species in the Gulf of Mexico accidentally catch Red Tuna spawning in that area, which threatens the viability of the species. In recent years, Gulf fishermen have begun using special hooks, called "Weak", Developed in part by the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association)Which have a circular shape and are lighter than those previously used.

It is difficult to get accurate statistics, but Bluefin tuna fishermen say most Tuna biting, they ultimately released. In an article published by the website of New England Sportsman, Mike Christy writes that the bluefin tuna fishing is "Ninety percent preparation, nine percent disappointment, and one percent success."

Catches of bluefin tuna in the United States by known as 'Gear hand " that is, lines of hand rod and reel, harpoon and peaked in 1966 with 3,615 tons, according to the American Association of Southern Bluefin Tuna. The imposition of quotas has drastically reduced catches in the country. In 2010, the last year for which data are available, the catch with hand gear amounted to about 725 tons.

SOURCE: Nationalgeographic.es