Fishing was great, but glut sinks prices

A promising Spanish market for West Coast albacore tuna went bust this year, a tough time to take a turn for the worst for fishermen trying to recover from a slashed salmon season.

It wasn't for lack of fish. There were plenty, and many albacore boats had big hauls. But there also were lots of fish being caught around the globe, notably in the Atlantic by the European fishery.

With Spanish and other European boats catching an amazing 20,000 tons of tuna, some markets evaporated. Prices fell. Japanese buyers of tuna for sashimi -- fresh raw fish -- waited to buy until it the Pacific fishery was wrapping up.

The perils of the world markets are well-illustrated by the West Coast albacore fishery. In 1998, the Spanish market was developed when a glut of fish drove prices paid by domestic canneries to less than half the average. But Spanish consumers were interested in darker, gourmet tuna, and the young West Coast albacore fit the bill.

For the past several years, West Coast fishermen delivered about a third of their catch to processors selling to Spain, a third for sashimi and a third to canneries like Bumblebee and Star-Kist.

”The Spanish market saved us for a few years,” said Eureka fisherman Wayne Sohrakoff.

This year, the price quickly dropped. Compared to last year's price of about $1,600 per ton, $1,300 per ton was a typical rate this year. Sohrakoff didn't want to fish for less than that, and decided to sell a small amount of tuna retail from his boat, the Drifter, at Woodley Island.

Tuna boats range far and wide, usually fishing several hundred miles offshore at the beginning of the season in mid-summer, then moving closer as the season wears on. They follow albacore in fingers of warm water that reach north into the Pacific, and may spend a month or more at sea before delivering their catch.

The smaller tuna are fattier and tastier than the larger fish that are the mainstay of canned tuna, the chunk white variety. They also contain less mercury.

It was some of the best fishing many had ever seen this year. But it was the same way in the North and South Atlantic. Wayne Heikkila, director of the Western Fishboat Owners Association that represents many American tuna boats, wonders if this year is an anomaly, or if the Spanish will be able to get what they need from their own boats in the future.

”We don't want to wish bad fishing on any fishermen,” Heikkila said, “but it would be nice if they didn't catch as many next year.”

The saving grace this year was Star-Kist's purchase of about 5,000 tons of West Coast albacore. Even that, however, might sometime be subject to the world market's machinations.

Heikkila said that the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act allows American processors to send American tuna to Ecuador to be sealed in pouches, then be shipped back to the United States duty free.

That act may soon be renegotiated, potentially throwing another wrench in the works.

It hasn't been bad for everybody. Eureka fisherman Skip McMaster has been working his way into a niche market for about a decade, and ithas paid off. He sells his tuna to a Charleston, Ore., outfit that sells fancy canned tuna, and has a reliable market for his fish each year now. With this year's good fishing, that has been a good deal.

McMaster recognizes the difficulties of the unstable world markets, but said there is good news in that the resource itself is doing well.

”The stocks are healthy, and that's reason to celebrate,” McMaster said.

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Source:  http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_4444883