New York Weather News - Jeff's Weather Blog

In the summer, Six of the world's 13 Tuna species chill out just off the jersey and long island shores. Weather plays a very important role in the migration of Tuna. Tuna are pelagic; which means they live up in the water column as opposed to on the ocean floor. These fish are migratory. Tunas frequent temperate and tropical oceans, where the surface water temperature exceeds 64 degrees. This year with above normal ocean temperatures, we could be looking at a prolonged tuna season well into late fall.


It takes more than a good captain to find the Tuna. You also need to be somewhat of a scientist -- you have to really look at the data. By looking at real-time satellite reports you can actually guess where the fish are-- and be right, without being there. Thermal satellite charts can help you find major temperature breaks and eddies; finding the breaks in temperatures will usually indicate where the Tuna are feeding. Warm-water eddies are circulating masses that have broken away from the main current of the Gulf Stream. Eddies spin in a clockwise direction as they continue flowing to the north.


According to Dr. Mitch Roffer of Roffer's Ocean Fishing Forecasting Service in Miami, a company that provides analysis of ocean temperature images, "A large eddy can easily be 120 miles in diameter, with a typical depth of 3,000 feet. They're somewhat circular in shape and contain Gulf Stream water."
Check out these photos from the trip a few summers ago tuna fishing trip to the Toms canyon, just about 85 miles out on the canyon ledge. It was a great trip with a mix of Yellowfin Tuna, Swordfish and Longfin Tuna. This year's trip will be September 19th-20th. This was Brian and I a few years ago with our first longfin, and this was a picture of Mike and me with a long fin as well

Past Deep Sea shots. Sharks, Tuna, Swordfish

If you are interested in joining and in the NYC area, send an email to jeff@acronym.com for more information.