Bluefish

Life History

One of the most popular recreational fish along the Atlantic coast, a father and sons with a bluefish. Photo credit: John McMurray, www.nyflyfishing.com

Bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix) are a migratory, oceanic species found throughout the world in most temperate, coastal regions, except the eastern Pacific. Bluefish migrate seasonally, moving north in spring and summer as water temperatures rise and moving south in autumn and winter to waters in the South Atlantic Bight. During the summer, concentrations of bluefish are found in waters from Maine to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. In winter they tend to be found offshore between Cape Hatteras and Florida. Bluefish generally school by size, with schools that can cover tens of square miles of ocean, equivalent to around 10,000 football fields.

Bluefish are fast growers and opportunistic predators, feeding voraciously on almost any prey they can capture. Bluefish live up to 12 years and may exceed lengths of 39" and weights of 31 pounds. Bluefish reach sexual maturity at age two and spawn offshore from Massachusetts through Florida. Discrete groups spawn at different times and are referred to by the season in which they spawn: the spring-spawned cohort and the summer-spawned cohort. Recent research has also identified a fall-spawned cohort, demonstrating an expanded and prolonged spawning season. The cohorts mix extensively on the fishing grounds and probably comprise a single genetic stock.

Commercial & Recreational Fisheries

Bluefish are predominantly a recreational fishery, with recreational landings accounting for approximately 87% of total landings by weight in recent years. As bluefish migrate seasonally up and down the Atlantic coast, anglers from Maine to Florida target these voracious predators near inlets, shoals, and rips, where they come to feed on large schools of bait. Recreational harvest peaked at 166.38 million pounds in 1986, but quickly declined in the 80s and 90s to its current average annual recreational harvest of approximately 21 million pounds. In 2023, recreational anglers harvested an estimated 84.55 million fish weighing 11.03 million pounds. Harvest during 2018-2023 was exceptionally low compared to the ten-year average of 19.05 million pounds. Bluefish recreational releases have averaged approximately two thirds of the total catch in numbers of fish since 1999.

Commercial landings decreased from 13.5 million pounds in 1985 to 7.35 million pounds in 1999. Since a state-specific quota system was implemented in 2000, commercial landings have averaged around 5.5 million pounds annually. 2022 marked a commercial landings time series low of 2.3 million pounds. The majority of bluefish were landed in North Carolina, New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island in 2023.

Stock Status

Based on the 2023 management track stock assessment conducted by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, bluefish are not overfished and not experiencing overfishing While bluefish are not overfished, the stock will remain in the rebuilding plan outlined in Amendment 2 to the Bluefish Fishery Management Plan (FMP) until spawning stock biomass (SSB) reaches the target level. The updated stock assessment incorporated data through 2022. SSB in 2022 was estimated to be 116 million pounds, which is 60% of the biomass target of 194 million pounds. Fishing mortality (F) in 2022 was estimated to be 0.152, below the F threshold (FMSY PROXY= F35% =0.239). Although fishing mortality was below the threshold in from 2018 through 2023, fishing mortality exceeded the updated threshold every year from 1985 to 2017 with the exception of 2008. The largest recruitment in the time series occurred in 1985 at 353 million fish, and the lowest recruitment was in 2019 at 69 million fish. Recruitment over the last 10 years has varied around the time series average of 126 million fish. A management track stock assessment is scheduled for June of 2025.

Atlantic Coastal Management

In June of 2021, the Board and Council jointly recommended approval of Amendment 2 (the Bluefish Allocation and Rebuilding Amendment) to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Bluefish. The Amendment updates the FMP goals and objectives, initiates a 7-year rebuilding plan, establishes new allocations between the commercial and recreational sectors, implements new commercial allocations to the states, revises the process for quota transfers between sectors, and revises how the management plan accounts for management uncertainty.

Amendment 2 to the Bluefish FMP allocates 86% of the resource to recreational fisheries and 14% to commercial fisheries. Annually, a portion of the recreational or the commercial sector’s quota can be transferred to the other sector (not to exceed 10% of the ABC) if it is anticipated that one of the sectors will not harvest its full quota. The commercial fishery is controlled through state-by-state quotas based on historic landings from 2009-2018. These new state-by-state quotas implemented through Amendment 2 will be phased in over a seven-year period to minimize the economic impact on commercial fisheries. The recreational fishery is managed under a coastwide 3-fish bag limit for private anglers and shore-based fishermen, and a 5-fish bag limit for for-hire fishermen. Since the passage of Addendum I in 2012, a coastwide biological sampling program has been underway to improve the quantity and quality of information used in future bluefish stock assessments.

Based on the 2023 management track stock assessment findings and rebuilding plan projections, the Board and Council set new specifications for the 2024 and 2025 fishing seasons and kept recreational management measures status quo. For 2025, the commercial quota was set at 3.03 million pounds and the recreational harvest limit (RHL) was set at 15.70 million pounds.