Garmin, a global leader in satellite navigation, has announced its support for the Airmar Tuna Challenge in Scotland - an initiative focused on using the latest fishfinding technology to locate Atlantic bluefin tuna in the waters surrounding Scotland. This species has been overfished in the last 20 years but recent studies are showing an encouraging rebirth of the North Atlantic population thanks to some great conservation efforts in the Western Atlantic.

Garmin echosounder

The project boat, ‘Keep it Reel’ is a 40-foot Rodman 1250 Fisher Pro owned by Barry Larsen, a famous motorboat racer and sport-fishing enthusiast - and Garmin has fitted it out with a full suite of cutting edge marine electronics, including its GSD 26 - a new echosounder with ‘spread spectrum’ (CHIRP) technology.

Bertrand Picarda, General Manager Airmar EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), explains: “Our goal is to demonstrate the return of the bluefin tuna in our region by utilising the latest echosounder technology.” Airmar’s new broadband transducers reportedly deliver five times greater sensitivity and performance than current fishfinder technology and are the enabling technology for next generation CHIRP (compressed high-intensity radar pulse) fishfinders.

As the Leader of the expedition, Picarda has pulled together a team of industry experts dedicated to raising the profile of big game fishing in Europe. Besides being an employee of Airmar Technology, Picarda has over a decade of experience in big game fishing with proven results in Bluefin Tuna competitions in the Mediterranean from 1998 through to 2003, including two national titles in the French Tuna Fishing Championship in 2001 and 2002.

The expedition will take place between June and October, with the team’s planning to fish ten days per month in different locations. For full project details, including a team biography, boat information including a full list of equipment, itinerary and photos, see Airmar blog.

Written by: Alex Smith
Alex Smith is a journalist, copywriter and magazine editor with a long history in boating and a happy addiction to the water. He’s worked on boats, lived on boats, bought boats, sold boats and – when he’s not actually on board a boat – he can generally be found in his Folkestone office, tapping away at the computer and gazing out to sea.