2024 Tournament Dates: September 25th – 29th, 2024

NOTE:

THE 2024 TOURNAMENT WILL BE OPERATED OUT OF THE SAMBRO OCEANVIEW FISHERIES FACILITIES.

 

Welcome
This coming September in Halifax, NS, international and local sports fishermen will join private boaters along with local charters to compete in the “Halifax Nova Scotia International Tuna Tournament (HNSITT)”.   The HNSITT proudly announces that this year’s tournament will be a qualifying event for the Offshore World Championship (OWC) billfishing tournament to be held (April 6th – 11 th) of 2025 in Quepos, Costa Rica. www.offshoreworldchampionship.com

Tuna weigh-ins will be conducted at the Oceanview Fisheries facilities in Sambro with Nova Scotia Health general Covid social distancing recommendations and thus will unfortunately not be available for public viewing. Limited vessel dockage will be arranged by HNSITT along the Halifax waterfront and provided by Build Nova Scotia for vessels from outside the area and local vessels are encouraged to use their private dockage if possible.  Note that communications between the Committee and Teams will be primarily by phone or email or VHF with limited person to person contact only to pass necessary items and/or documents.

Competitors will be vying for the Halifax Chronicle Herald Tuna Tournament Trophy along with the excitement and adrenaline rush of catching one of the toughest of all big-game fish. The Halifax Tuna Tournament Society (HTTS) is proud to announce that in June 2012, we have been awarded authorisation by DFO/ALPAC (Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada / Atlantic Large Pelagics Advisory Committee) to conduct Bluefin Tuna Tournaments in the Halifax region.  This includes access to the ten (10), non quota restricted, tuna tags that are customarily donated annually by the various fishing associations for charity purposes.  HTTS will also pursue access to additional tags through various tuna fishing associations to facilitate sanctioning of the event and to determine the final total number of bluefin tuna that may be landed in support of the IWK Foundation.

• Bluefin Tuna are managed in the Atlantic by the international commission for the conservation of Atlantic tuna (ICCAT). Quotas are set at sustainable levels by the International members based on the most up to date scientific advice. As a member of ICCAT, Canada receives an allocation based on this scientific data. The tournament fishes within the Canadian allocation, hence at a sustainable level that allows the stocks to continue to grow.”

Any fish landed in the tournament will be sold domestically and/or overseas with the proceeds of all sales being donated to the “IWK Health Centre Foundation” in Halifax Nova Scotia. In order to optimise charitable contributions for the event, a portion of the tournament entry fees will be directly donated to the IWK in lieu of any cash prizes awarded to the tournament winners.

The Halifax Nova Scotia International Tuna Tournament is one of the few opportunities to recreationally fish for the highly regulated and elusive bluefin tuna for both private and commercial/charter fishers.

The registration deadline is Saturday, September 14th, 2024.  This allows us better time management with regards to arranging with DFO and ordering necessary items.  Halifax region tournaments in the past have caught bluefin tuna in the range of 600 to 900 pounds and 8 to 9 feet in length.

The Halifax Nova Scotia International Tuna Tournament results and press releases are included on the Photos & Releases Page.

HTTS would like to thank DFO, the donating fishing associations and all of our other generous donors for making this tournament possible.  Please click on the links below to patronise our donors if you can, Thanks.