Fishing: Stand-up routine with 280kg on the line

Well-known Auckland big game angler Pete Jackson will lodge a 37kg and all-tackle record for a 280kg tuna if DNA testing confirms it is a Pacific bluefin.

Jackson was with a party of anglers on the boat Genesis out of Westport just before the southerly storm hit and six fish were caught over two days.

The smallest was 191kg, also caught by Jackson. All were played stand-up on 37kg gear.

"It's a great boat for that, there's plenty of room around the back deck," Jackson said. He took two hours and 15 minutes to bring the fish to the boat; the longest fight was four hours.

The Huia carpet layer has caught record-sized marlin, including blues, as well as broadbill, but rates the tuna as the hardest fighter.

"They are relentless. The blue marlin does all the spectacular stuff at the start but the tuna just keeps going with that power and speed. It's relentless, that's the difference."

The fish were caught at night as they came to the surface to feed, visible on the boat's sounder as they were attracted by chunked bits of hoki.

Then whole hoki were thrown in with two hooks. Jackson's big fish was lip and gut-hooked and died mid-fight, dropping to the bottom. They worked the boat around in circles to plane it back up.

Jackson had a previous record bluefin at 198kg, caught in the Kaipara Canyon off Bailey's Beach.

A sample of his latest catch has been sent to the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research for laboratory testing to confirm its species.

There are three types of big bluefin - southern, which have long been targeted for their high value, Pacifics or northern bluefin, and Atlantic bluefin. The Japanese developed the testing technique to identify the species because it is notoriously hard to do by sight, even for the experienced.

There are generally some variations in the colour of the cordal keel fin on the tail - Pacifics being yellow and southerns blue/green to black - but not always. Sometimes the Pacifics have a mottled colour pattern across the body - but, again, not always.

The only sure method of identification is when the fish is gutted, as the body wall of the gut cavity is different.

Southern bluefin have long been managed in international quota agreements because there is recognition of over-fishing.

Now the other bluefin are in the quota system too there is a problem for commercial fishermen in identifying fish accurately so they don't break quota limits.

The Ministry of Fisheries is having tuna DNA tested, as are some companies, in a bid to work out easy identification methods.

The amateur effort chasing these big fish is sure to increase now it is known how many are out there and the means of taking them. The season is short, just the few weeks when the hoki are running hard, and access by the charter fleet weather-dependant.

Of the six fish caught on Genesis, five were gut-hooked. The sixth, caught by Whakatane charter operator Rick Pollock, was lip-hooked so was tagged and released. The rest was canned, smoked or filleted and given away fresh.

The big blow is expected to improve the fishing no end once winds settle to allow access. Up north, some big snapper have been taken, including several in the 10-11kg range and a biggest catch of 11.5kg by Gene Pabirowski in the Bay of Islands, using baby blue mackerel as bait.

At Doubtless Bay there are 40-60cm snapper schooling and they should come on the bite hard once the sea calms. Winds reached 100 knots blowing straight down the bay into Mangonui Harbour during the week, rolling boats.

Former charter operator Doug McColl at Coopers Beach Sports described conditions as worse than those during Cyclone Bola. But the fish would start eating the shellfish thrown up by the wind once waters cleared and he predicted good catches in coming days.

Prior to the blow, terakihi were being caught on inshore reefs.

Around Auckland, school snapper are also the predominant catch, in the 30-45cm range. Mussel berley is the best. Fish are spread in all the usual pre-spawning areas and it is a matter of enticing them to bite. The bite-time remains short.

From Sydney comes a report that the health risks to the public from the mercury content of some seafoods has been overstated.

Professor Steve Otwell from the University of Florida's Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, one of the speakers at the sixth World Congress on Seafood Safety, Quality and Trade, said the immediate health benefits for the majority of people through eating a variety of seafoods far exceeded any possible lifetime consequences of eating fish noted for slightly higher levels of methyl mercury.

"For most people, the health benefits far, far outweigh any possible risk. Our main concern is to protect pregnant women and their children, and there is a large safety factor built into the existing international guidelines regarding methyl mercury levels in seafood. All authorities agree they should continue to eat fish. It is important for their child."

Bob Collette, vice-president of Science and Technology in the US National Fisheries Institute, agrees.

"A wide variety of fish should be eaten because most are very low in mercury," he said.

"It is important that everyone understand that fish have proven health benefits and emerging studies suggest babies whose mothers consumed fish have improved brain development and function."