From the Matt's Link:
If your club is currently in the planning stages for a 2022 mako tournament, you can stop right there as there will be no mako harvest allowed along the East Coast for the next two years.
The United States and other countries from around the world tackled management challenges for Atlantic tunas and sharks at the 2021 annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) that concluded on November 23.
On the plus side, commission members adopted a measure for Western Atlantic bluefin tuna with a total catch limit of 2,726 metric tons resulting in a quota increase of more than 5% for U.S. fishermen. This increased fishing opportunity for bluefin tuna is consistent with scientific advice allowing for a moderate increase in catch while having a high probability of avoiding overfishing and providing for the sustainability of the fishery.
According to
NOAA Fisheries, ICCAT will continue working to finalize its management strategy evaluation for bluefin tuna. Those holding an HMS Permit can expect to see a series of stakeholder workshops scheduled sometime in 2022.
The bad news coming out of ICAAT is that a two-year retention ban is being implemented starting in 2022 on North Atlantic shortfin mako shark which ICCAT called “overfished.” According to NOAA Fisheries, the ban on mako harvest also contains strong provisions to improve data reporting, and particularly, the catch reporting of live releases and fish discarded dead, by all ICCAT parties.