June 19, 2019 — Landings for West Coast albacore tuna fell below 2017 landings and below the 20-year average in 2018. The troll industry hopes enough market-sized, young fish will recruit into the fishery in time for this year’s season.
“There were a lot of small fish around last year,” said Wayne Heikkila, executive director of Western Fishboat Owners Association in Redding, Calif. By small fish, he’s referring to 7-pound fish that the industry hopes will grow to 12- to 15-pound fish in time for the 2019 season, which peaks in July.
According to data from PacFIN, trollers caught and sold 6,950.3 metric tons of albacore in 2018, which is down by 7 percent from 2017 landings of 7,467.7 metric tons. Ex-vessel prices also fell by about 23 percent from the $2.12 per pound that processors paid in 2017 to $1.63 per pound in 2018. Fleet revenues also fell by about 28 percent from $34.83 million to $24.93 million.
Though it’s difficult to identify price-depressing factors in the world market of tuna, other countries contribute cheaper product into avenues that compete directly with U.S. albacore.