Fisherman's 882 lb Tuna Confiscated by Feds

[ProfessorAronnax]

Sounds like a bummer: New Bedford fisherman catch -- but can’t keep -- 882-pound tuna

[DandyDon]

He bought how many licenses over how many years, then plays the "Oh, I didn't know I couldn't keep net catches."

It should sell for a lot more than $5,000 tho - more like $500,000 in Tokyo, as they are rare now - severely overfished.

[sailingk8]

There is more to the story, the guy has been caught several times in the previous months with secret compartments on his boats.

"The brush with federal enforcement is the latest in a string for Rafael, who sits on the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition.
Twice in the last three months, the U.S. Coast Guard has charged the captain of a boat in Rafael's fleet with operating while having a hidden compartment on board."


Seized tuna is fisherman's third brush with NOAA » Local News » GloucesterTimes.com, Gloucester, MA

[beautybelow]

[QUOTE=DandyDon;6126219

It should sell for a lot more than $5,000 tho - more like $500,000 in Tokyo, as they are rare now - severely overfished.[/QUOTE]

Sure...it would be worth a lot more had he decided to rush it to Tokyo and put it up for auction. It would have even been worth a lot more than 5,000 had he brought it to one of the international boats offshore and had it sampled and sold it to them, but not a half a million dollars.

This is true with all commercial fishing though. I spent a good part of my life working all day catching a product I sold over the dock at average $6.00/lb and could drive 1 1/2 hours to Miami beach and buy my product that I just sold them for average $50.00/lb.