The 2022 bluefin tuna catch & release tagging research programme started on August 15th with 25 boats in England mostly in the south-west, six operating in Wales and five in Northern Ireland. As with the 2021 programme these boats are operating under license as part of a scientific tagging project run by DEFRA. The boats are somewhat constrained in that they can only use one type of fishing method – trolling using teams of “stingers’ attached to spreader bars which are trailed out of the back of the boat. Dead baiting on the drift is permitted too but isn’t an effective method in the South West.
Using spreader
