Commercial fishing boats have already begun unloading big catches of albacore tuna at New Plymouth, Australia, where they are being processed for export to clients in Spain, Thailand and American Samoa.
The early catches began three weeks ago off the Manukau Harbor, but now huge numbers of the tuna are closing in on the North Taranaki coastline as warm currents are pushed south by northerly winds.
Fresha Fisheries Ltd factory manager Murray Smith said the tuna had arrived early because sea temperatures have rapidly risen.
Mr, Smith said his company was flat-out blast freezing tuna that was being unloaded at Port Taranaki.
Most of the fish processed by Fresha Fisheries is exported in containers to Spain for canning.
And fellow fish processing company Egmont Seafoods is also busy processing tuna for export to Thailand and American Samoa.
Spokesman Keith Mawson said a feature of this summer's catch is that the tuna are considerably larger than in recent years.
“They're averaging more than 5kg, and some are up around the 10kg mark. They're really nice fish,†he said.
Mr. Mawson said there traditionally seemed to be a really good tuna season every five to seven years.
“The way things have kicked off, it looks like this summer might be the one,†he said.