2025-Results

 

HNSITT  2025 – Sept 17- Sept 21

Hi everyone, the registrations and Captains Meeting for the 2025 Halifax Nova Scotia International Tuna Tournament took place at the GARRISON BREWERY, 1149 Marginal Rd, Halifax between 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. with a Team Roll Call at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday the 16th of September. Each team had at least one person present for the Roll Call check and to picked up their necessary registration items so they can legally fish.  

The registration commenced at 7:00 to pass on Tuna Tags, ICCAT forms, vessel trackers and detailed instructions on communications and tuna landing procedures to all teams.  Pizza this year was donated by Greg Mombourquette and a cash bar was available for socializing with all of the team members.  12 Teams have entered this years tournament (listed below). The Registration packages including their initial tuna tag, ICCAT forms along with the DFO license conditions and log forms to be filled out and returned to DFO at completion of the tournament.  In addition there were vessel tracker units provided and updated instructions for the tournament. 

Four boats from Cape Breton and two local Halifax boats were moored on the Halifax waterfront on Tuesday afternoon and the Captain’s Meeting was well attended with a cheerful and lively crowd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dave Edgecombe opened the meeting with a greeting to all and a roll call of all the teams present followed by a short greeting by Victoria Reid of the IWK thanking the teams and tournament for supporting the IWK over the past and present years. Greg Connor outlined the procedure details for the required DFO login and logouts and fishing logs that must be filled in as part of our license agreement to allow the tournament. Vic Hennis confirmed that we have 10 tags donated by DFO for this year and that 2 additional tags have generously been donated for this year’s tournament.

Lee Andrew then gave some information on the tracker systems and helped crews log into the tracking app.

Chris Purcell of Oceanview Fisheries also gave a short briefing on care and handling of the tuna once it is secured in order to get the best quality and ultimately best price for the fish to maximize our donations to the IWK.

The teams collected their registration packages with tags and log forms and trackers for this year’s tournament.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good luck to all and tight lines.

Tuna landings will be at the Oceanview Fisheries docks in Sambro throughout the tournament with the Captain and crew allowed off the vessel to complete necessary documentations and photos.  There will be no public viewings.

Note to Teams:  Please send photos and any comments and good fishing stories to HITT@bluefintournament.ca so that I will be able to update this 202 results page as the tournament progress’s.  Thanks from the webmaster.

 

Teams Entered 2025 year: 

Team Name	Captain	Vessel Name
Blind Strike	Gerard Mombourquette	Blind Strike
The Tunament	Michael Martell	Jacobite
Mad Dad	Roddie MacCuspic	Mad Dad
Ripley’s Believe It	Calvin Ripley	Ripley’s Believe It II
Team Edge	Dave Edgecombe	Blu
Rubber Boots Bandit	Reagan Henneberry	Knot to Shabby
Lobster’s R Us	John Martell	Reel Boss
Team Viking	Mark Wilbur	Nijinski
The Harbour Hookers	Gregory Osborne	Tuna Tank
Tunatics	Eric Ladovich, K McWilliams	Coastal Explorer
Chasing Tail	Don Cameron	Boston Whaler
The Black Sheep	James Smith	Black Sheep

 

2025 Results Summary: 

Team Name	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
Blind Strike	612			No Fishing	No Fishing
The Tunament	634
Mad Dad
Ripley’s Believe It
Team Edge	672		745
Rubber Boots Bandit		383	849
Lobster’s R Us	675
Team Viking	620
The Harbour Hookers	616		398
Tunatics		495
Chasing Tail	628
The Black Sheep	557
Daily Totals (lbs)	5014	878	1992	0	0
Tournament Totals (lbs)					7884

 

 Day 1 – Wednesday (17th) Result

WOW what a day !!!

Day one of the tournament was met with a contingent from the IWK down on the Halifax waterfront docks to see the crews there off before 06:00.  Conditions were light winds and a clear sky to kick of a good day of fishing.

Around 08:00 team Edge reports the they were on a fish and around 09:12 they had secured it and were cooling the fish before heading to Sambro.  Just slightly earlier Team Harbour Hookers had also landed a fish and hailed in to take the Wayne Hoskins First Fish Trophy.

At 10:15 it was reported the two fish have been secured and hailed in to ACD with ETAs of 11:30 and 12:00.

Around 11:50 Team Edge on Blu arrived at Oceanview Fisheries dock in Sambro to offload their catch.

12:29 informed that Black Sheep had secured a fish and two others were hooked up Chasing Tail and Reel Boss of Lobster’s R Us.

12:41 reported that Reel Boss had secured their fish and one still hooked up.

Activity continued through the remainder of the day with Team Nijinski delivering the 8th fish of the day about 9 p.m.

What a Day !!!

Photos in order of delivery to the Oceanview dock in Sambro.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Day 2 – Thursday (18th) Results

Day 2 started out with light winds from the southwest and overcast sky with showers in the forecast.  Four boats eligible to fish today.

Around 08:35 Team Rubber Boots Bandit secured the first fish of the day.  They arrived at Oceanview approximately 09:30.

At about 11:45 Team Tunatics on Ocean Explorer arrived at Oceanview dock with the 10th fish of the tournament.

Two vessels are still out fishing for the remaining two extra tags that have been donated for the IWK.

 

 

 

16:00 fishing is done for the day with 10 tags filled and the tournament standings are set.  All vessels are allowed to fish tomorrow for the last two donated tags for the IWK.

 

Day 3- Friday (19th) Results

Day 3 started with partially overcast skies and light westerly winds.  7 boats have set out this morning to attempt to catch the last two fish on the extra donated tags provided this year by Wesley Henneberry of FIN Fisheries in Sambro.  Approximately 10:00 this morning Vic Heniss informed us that a possible 3rd extra tag had been donated by the same doner.

At 07:40 it was reported that Team Rubber Boots Bandit on the vessel Knot to Shabby had secured the first fish of the day.  One Tag left.

Around 09:30 Knot to Shabby arrived at Oceanview dock to deliver a monster 849 lb. tuna.

 

 

 

Things were quiet until the tide change around 13:30 and suddenly there were 3 hook ups within a very short time period.  Team Harbour Hookers secured the first one at approximately 14:40.  At approximately 15:00 both Team Edge and Team Lobsters R Us had fish alongside and there was a friendly agreement that Team Lobsters R Us would release their fish as it was thought to be the smaller of the two and had not yet been fully secured.

15:01 it was announced that the fishing is now officially over and the 2025 tournament fishing was completed.

At 16:50 Team Harbour Hookers arrived at the Oceanview dock to deliver their fish with Team Edge standing by just behind them.

 

 

 

 

Day 4- Saturday (20th) Results

Day 4 No Fishing

  Day 5- Sunday (21st) Results

Sunday No Fishing

 

 

Thanks to all the fishermen and to the volunteers for a great fishing year.  Also special thanks to DFO for providing the original 10 Tuna Tags donated by the fisheries associations of Nova Scotia and the extra 3 tags and quota provided by Wesley Henneberry of FIN Fisheries in Sambro.

 

Closing Ceremonies:

The Closing ceremony gathering was held on Sunday Sept 21st from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Best Western Plus, Chocolate Lake Hotel, 250 Saint Margaret’s Bay Road. 

Trophies for the tournament were on display in preparation for the presentations.

 

Representative from most of the local Halifax area teams were present with approximately 40 people participating in a pleasant social gathering with drinks and stories before the presentations. Unfortunately most of the Cape Breton teams were absent as they had taken Saturday and Sunday to run their vessels back to their home ports in the good weather that had continued through the weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the presentations outlined below were completed a very tasty roast beef carvery meal that was provided to us by the chefs at the Best Western Hotel and was enjoyed by all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just prior to the meal around 7:45 pm. our trophy presentation and closing ceremonies got underway. It was kicked off by our Master of Ceremonies Greg Connor who is the president of ACD, and the Treasurer of our Board. Greg gave a brief summary of this year’s tournament and pointed out that we had caught 13 fish in total this year thanks to the initial 10 tags provide through DFO plus the generous donations of three tag from Wesley Henneberry of Fin Fisheries in Sambro whose son Reagan Henneberry Captained Knot to Shabby of Team Rubber Boots Bandits in the tournament this year. 

Greg also noted that only four fish this year were less than 600 lbs. and that on Day 1 of the tournament the first fish was hailed in at 08:49 and the second fish hailed in at 09:05 with 8 fish caught on the first day.  Also that it had been agreed that the tournament standings would be decided on the weights of the first 10 DFO tagged fish landed and the additional donated tag fish would be for additional cash donation to the IWK even though the two largest fish were the 11th (849 lbs) and 13th (745 lbs) fish caught this year.

 

Greg then introduced Victoria Reid, Relationship Manager & New Business, Community and Corporate Giving, IWK Foundation who spoke to us about the new Psychiatric Centre developments at the IWK and how our donations were used to provide special items and equipment to support the care of the children at the hospital.

 

With the introductions and warm thanks from the IWK the trophy presentations began.

 

 

 

Wayne Hoskin Memorial Trophy

The Wayne Hoskin Memorial Trophy is given out each year to the Team that lands the first Bluefin to be secured and logged in by call in to Atlantic Catch Data (ACD) for donation to the IWK.

The winning team of the Wayne Hoskin Memorial Trophy was Team: The Harbour Hookers

With Captain Gregory Osborne and team members David Burke, Christopher McCarthy, Evan Dawe

This was the teams first year of entry into our tournament and we congratulate and thank them for their participation.

 

Third Place: Team: The Tunament – 634 lb. fish

Captain Michael Martell and team members Donald MacKenzie, Jerry Courchene

Unfortunately they had returned to Cape Breton and were not able to be present at the closing. Vic Heniss presented the trophy to Victoria Reid as a stand in.

 

Second Place:  Team Edge – 672 lb. fish

Team Captain Dave Edgecombe and team members  Dave Greenwood, Jeff Potter, Jim Lawley, Peter Maloney, Ben Maloney

 

First Place:  Team Lobsters R Us – 675 lb. fish

Team Captain John Martell and team members Jeffrey Martell, Jerry Martell, Aubrey Landry, Janelle Martell, Bryan MacDonell

Again John and the team had taken their vessel Reel Boss back up to Cape Breton and were not available for the award ceremony so Victoria Reid and Reagan Henneberry separately accepted the First Place trophy for John this year.

 

 

The first place winning Team also received a 1st place Halifax Nova Scotia International Tuna Tournament keeper trophy along with an invitation to the Offshore World Championship Tournament in Quepos, Costa Rica which will be held on the 19th to 23rd of April 2026

 

Special thanks to Oceanview Fisheries for Tuna landing facilities, bait, fish processing and marketing as well as to all of our sponsors and donors for their support.

Particular thanks to our volunteers: Vic Hennis, Biruta Hennis  for their effort at the Captain’s meeting and closing ceremonies and throughout the tournament. Lee Purcell also put in thankful effort in setting up the Track devices that were provided to the boats during the tournament so that all could monitor what was going on.  Also special thanks to Greg Connor who is our board Treasure as well as the President of ACD for both his HTTS society work and also his ACD roll of logging in the fish as required by DFO with related costs donated to the tournament and the IWK.

 

Info

Below are the fish proceeds results for the 2025 catch.  Oceanview Fisheries handled marketing and shipping of all fish with a minimal charges for out of pocket costs to maximize donations to the IWK.  Net Price per Pound is market price after expenses.

Total proceeds including the Cash donations, Bait Sales and the portion of Registration Fees donated to the IWK amounted to $________ for the 2025 tournament. (when available)

Announcement:

Presentation:

 

This brings the HTTS 15 year cumulative donations to a total of $________ from the running of the  Halifax Nova Scotia International Tuna Tournament.  We wish the IWK all the best and thank all participants, volunteers and sponsors for their hard work and generosity to make this year another great success.