JERSEY’S beleaguered commercial fishing fleet had a reason to be cheerful this weekend when four boats landed bluefin tuna, which will be sold via restaurants, cafés, supermarkets and merchants to Islanders wishing to sample the highly prized fish.
For three of the four successful boats, it was their first opportunity to land the tightly regulated species, after Jersey managed to secure extra quota from the UK, as part of a commercial and scientific trial designed to improve understanding of this giant fish.
That season began for them at midnight on Sunday, with Les Burt of Crabs Direct, Leyton Hunnisett and Gabby Mason of Jade-S Fisheries, and Jason Bonhomme of Soixante Neuf Fisheries, all catching a single tuna each, weighing between 40 and 80 kg.
The day before, Shetty Chavan, who was the only successful local applicant in a UK-led commercial scheme, caught his second tuna of the season – a 77kg specimen off Corbière.
All the fish – which have to be carefully stored and prepared – will be on sale in Jersey this week.
Tina Burt of Crabs Direct, whose husband Les caught their first fish on Sunday, supported by crew Oliver Heart and Andy Reynolds, said that they were “over the moon” landing a tuna on day one.
She said: “We are so grateful to Alex Plaster and the team at Marine Resources for working so hard for us to get the extra licences. We applied for the original scheme, which went into a randomly selected lottery with one Jersey boat chosen [Mr Chavan], so we were naturally disappointed at that outcome.
“But we’re now delighted to be part of the trial scheme. Sunday was amazing – we hooked ‘Sheila’ – named by our grandchildren – within seven minutes and Conor McMurray from Dunn-Ross Fisheries was waiting on the quayside to take it from there.”
She added: “There was a real buzz down at the Harbour. Unfortunately, there has been a lot of doom and gloom among the commercial fleet of late – it’s not great when you lift 100 pots to find only two lobsters because the octopus have had the rest – but Sunday was very different.
“This is a great shot in the arm for a struggling industry, and I urge Islanders to please give this fantastic locally caught product a go. I know 70% of our fish was already sold before it was even filleted so there is definitely an appetite for it.”
Mrs Burt said that her husband and crew would be out again today in the search for more tuna.
Ms Mason said: “This is an incredible display of how industry and Marine Resources, particularly Alex Plaster, have worked tirelessly to try to create this opportunity for the fleet.”
She added: “I think it will be interesting to see how the market evolves, as more fish get caught. The initial excitement will naturally calm down but the species will remain a fantastic product. Jersey has imported, and still imports, a lot of bluefin and yellowfin tuna but we have an opportunity for locally caught tuna to take that market over.
“As an Island, we really need to support and buy into this product. Everyone give it a go! It could make the world of difference to the fishing economy and the morale of the fleet.”
Ms Mason added that although tuna was considered expensive, the industry was committed to selling it at a sensible price. She added that there were many different cuts at different prices, and the value of these differed around the world.
Fish in Jersey’s waters appeared to be different to those found off Cornwall, she added, with local shoals typically found further out.
Her plan, she continued, was to begin selling the fish today, including to restaurants as well as from the Jade-S mobile van and at its Driftwood Café at Archirondel.
Mr Plaster, who is marine science and research manager in the government’s Marine Resources department, said that the new trial was using ten tonnes of quota from the UK’s 230-tonne allocation.
He said: “On the science side, this allows us to get a better understanding of the fish size, how long the fish are here for, how much they have eaten etc. On the social and economic side, we can assess if our fishermen are, for example, equipped and ready to catch these fish, if we have the correct facilities on shore, or if we are using enough ice.
“We can already see that average weights in the UK are much higher, so we know we have a different fishery in Jersey. That makes it even more important that whatever quota we are using and whichever final commercial licensing scheme we come up with is appropriate to the Island. This cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach.”
