Fishing Update
Report from Director of Fisheries James Glass
Photos from Administrator Philip Kendall
The Island Council have now approved the Total Area Catch (TAC) recommended for the outer islands of Nightingale Inaccessible and Gough.
Therefore, the 2025/26 TAC's for the Outer Islands are as follows:
- Nightingale - 95 tonnes, minus last year's over-catch of 507kgs = a total of 94.493 tonnes
- Inaccessible - 118 tonnes, minus last year over catch of 2,424kgs = a total of 115.576 tonnes
- Gough - 122 tonnes
- A total for the Tristan group is 466.884 tonnes
Further Tristan fishing days occured on:
8th August, with the local boats landing 7.704 tonnes. One boat, with Cliff Swain and Clifton Repetto on board, landed 1.065.2 tonnes.
22nd August with the day's landing being 6.2525 tonnes and the top boat Steve Swain and Shane Green landing 869.9kgs.
Photos taken on 24th July 2025 - the first fishing day of the 2025/2026 season
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| Fishing boat arriving in Calshot harbour | Catch of Tristan Lobster ready to offlaod |
| See also 1st 2005/6 Fishing Day | |
The MFV Edinburgh arrived on 24th August. The Fisheries team and myself will join her to do the annual biomass survey before commercial fishing can start. I will also stay onboard as Sea Fishery Officer for approx 2 weeks as most of my staff are off island.
2025/26 Fishing Season Begins
Report from Director of Fisheries James Glass
Photos from Administrator Philip Kendall
At the Formal 367th Island Council meeting held on Wednesday 2nd July 2025, the Council approved the Tristan TAC (Total Area Catch) for 2025 of 136MT minus last year's over-catch of 1,185kg, as proposed by the TDC Fisheries Department.
Therefore, the TAC for the Tristan local boats will be 134,815kg (TAC 134.8mt) for the 2025/2026 season.
The first fishing day was 24th July, a late start (the season began on 1st July) due to poor weather and the island being hit by a bad flu virus. The nine boats (Group A) landed a total of 5592.2kg, with the highest boat catch of 846.5kg, not bad for a shakedown day. Now (Group B) anxiously await the next day to see what they can land.
The Fishing Committee will meet soon to discuss the TAC's for the outer islands.
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Fishing boats returning from the first day of fishing on 24th July 2025
Other views at Calshot Harbour as the boats returned anre shown below.
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In the left image the Tristan lobsters (crawfish or crayfish) can clearly be seen;
ready to be weighed and then transported to the cliff-top factory for processing.