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"They said it had to be caught with rod and reel," a frustrated Rafael said. "We didn't try to hide anything. We did everything by the book. Nobody ever told me we couldn't catch it with a net."
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What a total Buffoon!!!!!
This guys a Trawler, which means he's permitted for commercial trawling or dragging nets on the bottom for fish or invertebrates. Evidently he tangled up a Giant Bluefin while raising or lowering his nets, and he's now trying to pretend it's a legal catch. It's not a legal catch. It's not even legal as bycatch.
Atlantic Giant Bluefin are tightly manged by the NMFS and can only be taken commercially by permit a few ways. Rod and Reel, Handline, Greenstick, Longline, Purse seine and special tuna Traps or weirs.
In order to legally take them with any of that gear you have to have a commercial tuna permit specifically for that gear. There are no permits for Trawling Giant Bluefin, it's not a legal means of take commercially or otherwise.
If I had to guess I imagine this guy get's hook and line permits for his boats for fishing Bluefin when not trawling. He got the tuna in his net and thought maybe he could squeek it by and sell it as a hook and line fish. When he reported it they probably realized he was actually trawling and confiscated the fish, and now that he's busted he's trying to pretend he didn't know the regs, and that he should still be able to sell the fish.
Commercial trawling is highly regulated especially when it comes to bycatch because improper trawling can bring in huge amounts of bycatch sometimes as much as 90%. Trawlers know the regs that govern their activities better then anyone. Most of them have had their trawling permits for decades because in most cases you cant get new permits.
I have no sympathy for this guy at all. He's got to know the regs, and is now just using the press, and public opinion to try to make money off a fish that he damn well knew was not legal for him to take or sell.
To claim it's some kind of trophy, or the fish of a lifetime is a joke. If you hit a Twelve Point Buck with your truck it wouldn't be a Trophy, you wouldn't of been legally hunting when you killed it, nor would it be a legal animal to bring home, or sell.
Jim