Tuna Fishing in the Stellwagen Bank Area of Massachusetts Bay

As Laidlaw & Company managing partner, James (Jim) Ahern is an established financial executive with a focus on arranging financing for expansion companies in the health care vertical. In addition to his work at Laidlaw, James (Jimmy) Ahern is a boating enthusiast who enjoys fishing for tuna off the coast of Cape Cod. 

Bluefin tuna can be caught in several spots in Massachusetts as they migrate from early June through September. One well-known area is the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, which encompasses 842 square miles between Cape Ann and Cape Cod at the mouth of Massachusetts Bay. An underwater plateau, it reflects the same geologic processes that created outer Cape Cod, with ice sheets retreating following the last Great Ice Age. 

Above water until 12,000 years ago, the bank today harbors myriad sea life, including haddock, flounder, and cod, and is listed as one of the top ten whale watching sites worldwide. The sanctuary designation does not affect fishing. Rather, it protects commercial and recreational fishing activities through regulations designed to prevent the transfer of petroleum products, gravel mining, and the harming of terrestrial species such as turtles, birds, and mammals. 

Fishing enthusiasts have been known to catch bluefin tuna as little as three miles from the shore, with the largest specimens landed in the Massachusetts Bay each year weighing over 1,000 pounds.