New Revelations About the Habits of Albies

Amid the heat and humidity of mid-July, it may seem like forever until the cool, dry northerlies of September and October arrive — and with them, the albies.

Perhaps it is torture to dream of the arrival of albies already (it’s entirely possible that we could start seeing some within just five weeks!), but there was some very, very interesting news that came out this week about the East Coast false albacore stock. (Apologies, if you aren’t familiar — I’m talking about a species of small tuna named little tunny, which are more commonly called false albacore and colloquially shortened to just albies by those of us addicted to pursuing them.)

The American Saltwater Guides Association announced this week that some of the albies they tagged off Long Island and Cape Cod last fall have been captured again off the central Florida coast.

This is big news, because very little is known about the migration habits of little tunny. We know they trade between inshore and offshore. We’ve long known that they are very widespread: We catch them here in the fall, they pester fishermen trolling for pelagic species off the Carolinas in the spring, they’re in the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific, and they are well-known off the coast of Florida, where they call them bonita.

But we’ve never known if those were all the same fish. Are those individual stocks that trade in and out in those areas? Do they roam up and down the entire coast? Do they even cross the ocean, perhaps, like bluefin do?

Now we know that at least some of them do run the entire coast. This does not fill in the entire picture, but it makes a very important connection between what may be the two most important locations on the albie map.

The reason that knowing that the fish off the Florida coast and the fish off the Northeast are from the same stock is important is that albies are treated very differently here in the Northeast, where they are almost exclusively a catch-and-release fishery, than they are in Florida, where they are not targeted as aggressively as we do here and are rarely released.

In the Northeast, albies are the engine of a multimillion-dollar industry servicing light-tackle anglers who pursue albies as they crash through pods of bay anchovies. As striped bass stocks have declined, they have played an increasingly critical role in keeping fishing guides in business in the region.

In Florida, however, they are pretty much just bait.

There are is a fairly small — but growing — community of fishermen in Florida who target albies for the light tackle thrill of screaming drags. But mostly they are ignored by ocean fishermen more intent on catching sailfish, mahi and edible bottom species.

They are in high demand, however, by swordfish fishermen, who prize “bonita strips” for use in rigging swordfish baits. The belly of an albie, with its metallic silver sides and typically tough tuna skin, makes a flashy and durable strip bait that can be sewn up beneath a rubber skirt and has proven to be one of the most reliable baits for deep-dropping swords.

They are so in demand that a certain small commercial fishery has arisen for albies to supply tackle shops with baits for prerigging and freezing.

And that is why the ASGA is so eager to see more and better understanding of albies — as anyone who cherishes them should be. There are currently no regulations regarding the harvest of little tunny anywhere on the coast.

And when begged to consider such a thing, fisheries managers say that more needs to be known about their biology — major scientific analysis will need to be done. What the ASGA’s Albie Project has set out to do is lay down a biological baseline that will at least give the regulators an understanding of the basics to justify doing a broader study.

There’s no reason to think that there is real need for regulations right now. The harvest of albies for swordfish bait is not likely to pose much of a threat to their numbers, which would seem to be pretty vast. But understanding where things stand and what the pressures are is key to making sure that you don’t get caught off guard someday.

There is so much more to know and the ASGA is doing good work. I would encourage anyone to go on their website, www.saltwaterguidesassociation.com, and offer whatever support you can (they have some cool apparel from time to time).

Big tunas abound in the canyons and a few nearer-to-shore spots. Big stripers are still in the rips off Montauk. Fluke are here but the fishing is not gangbusters basically anywhere — except all the way out at Block Island.

Catch ’em up. See you out there.