Updated April 9, 2025: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has shut down bluefin tuna fishing at Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head, North Carolina. A pier spokesperson confirmed to Outdoor Life that a NOAA officer visited Jennette’s Tuesday morning. This was after several local anglers had hooked or caught bluefins there, both from the pier and from their personal kayaks, over the weekend. The officer advised pier management that customers could not legally fish for bluefin tuna under federal law.
“We were advised to remove all references to the bluefin bite from our social media platforms because it is considered promoting an illegal activity,” Jennette’s Pier announced in a Facebook post.
Current Atlantic bluefin tuna regulations apply to fishing activities conducted from vessels. There is no specific federal regulation that specifically limits the landing of bluefin tuna from shore, because the species is typically caught well offshore. However, all anglers must comply with federal regulations that govern landing and retention limits for bluefin, and they are required to have the proper licenses, whether the fish are hooked miles or mere yards from the beach.
According to NOAA’s Code of Federal Regulations: “It is unlawful for any person or vessel subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to fish for, catch, possess, retain, land, or sell Atlantic highly migratory species without the appropriate valid vessel permit with the appropriate endorsements.”
April 7, 2025 8:03PM EDT: Fishing is usually hot on Jennette’s Pier this time of year, with anglers hooking plenty of croaker, bluefish, and sizable red drum. But landing deep-sea fish like bluefin tuna there is unheard of. Bluefin don’t typically show up 1,000 feet from the sand. But someone apparently forgot to tell the fish that.
For more than a week now, anglers fishing from Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head, North Carolina, have been hooking sizable bluefin tuna right off the end of the pier — an unprecedented streak that has stunned locals and lit up the Outer Banks fishing community.
Seeing them almost within casting distance of the beach is incredibly unusual. But a confluence of conditions — the spring migration, ideal water temperatures, and massive schools of menhaden (also known as bunker) packed tightly to the coast — appears to have drawn the tuna to within spitting distance of the shoreline. Jennette’s Pier staff and local anglers have recently confirmed that big menhaden schools in the area.
The action kicked off the morning of March 31, when anglers hooked multiple bluefin. Videos from the scene show spinning reels screaming and rods doubled over as anglers tried to keep up with the ...
