Cold Water Currents Drive U.S. Albacore Away ff

The fish hits the bucket like a block of wood, its stiff-as-a-board body making a hollow thud as it is heaped onto a 600-pound pile of albacore tuna. A crane hoists the load from the boat and unleashes a deluge of long fins into boxes on an Astoria dock.

Sorting frozen albacore tuna by size at a pier.

These migratory fish surge through Pacific Ocean waters parallel to the coast each summer. Arriving about 200 miles south of California with a warm current from Japan, they travel north 10 to 150 miles offshore, following their preferred water temperature, about 58 to 64 degrees. But weather caused fickle water conditions this summer.

A strong northwest wind brought cold water in and drove the fish deeper and farther offshore, resulting in an Oregon albacore catch less than half of what it was last year. “'It’s been a real strange summer,” said Michael Morrissey, director of the Oregon State University Seafood Laboratory. “It’s due more to ocean conditions than anything else.”

The industry has weathered more changes than just periodic downswings from ocean conditions. In the 1980s and 1990s, the albacore market crumbled, as major canneries on the West Coast moved offshore in search of cheaper labor and warmer waters.

More than 30 commercial fish canneries once operated along the Columbia River, according to the Clatsop County Historical Society. Astoria's last one closed in 1980. Now, only one full-scale canning facility operates in the mainland United States, in San Pedro, Calif., according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Gayle Parker said she bought “tons from Astoria” canneries when she was hired as a tuna buyer for StarKist 35 years ago. But the tuna industry has adjusted to the changes, she said. “The bottom line is that people adapted to new markets,” said Parker, who after 25 years with StarKist began working for other buyers and eventually on her own.

In lieu of large canneries, microcanners began to buy the fish and make small batches of higher quality products. Fishing boats also have moved toward quality, rather than focusing on quantity, she said. While brine-bled fish, bled and frozen in a salt solution, and regular brine fish, brined whole, are common, Parker buys mostly blast-bled tuna. Each blast-bled fish is landed by hand, unhooked, slit open at the throat and bled before it is rapidly frozen within a couple of hours, which keeps it fresher. She pays $2,900 per ton for the higher quality, blast-bled fish, which she won't buy if it's warmer than minus 20 degrees when it is unloaded at the dock.

Brine-bled tuna runs at $2,100 per ton, and regular brine at $1,850 per ton.

Flash freezers are a hefty investment for albacore trollers, running from $40,000 for 60-foot vessels to $150,000 for larger boats. About half of the fleet fishing along the West Coast have installed them, Parker said, because they pretty much “guarantee a good product.”

Parker buys fish to sell to companies in Canada, Japan and Spain.

Of more than 17,000 tons of albacore caught in the northern Pacific in 2003, about one-third went to large U.S. companies and two-thirds went to foreign markets, according to the Western Fishboat Owners Association. The majority was sold to Europe, where the troll-caught albacore is considered a delicacy, and to Japan, where it is used for sashimi. But that amount was considered astronomical, Parker said.

Last year, of the 17,000-ton catch, about 15,000 tons likely came from waters off the Oregon and Washington coasts. She estimates this year’s haul won’t top 5,000 tons.

Canadian Greg Shepheard, who trolls for tuna in the North Pacific on the 65-foot boat B.C. Sun, said this slow season was more like a normal year.

Trollers catch albacore on hook-and-line jigs towed behind boats. Drift gill nets, more often used in high seas, were banned by the United Nations in 1992, after poor ocean temperatures, overfishing and other conditions depleted tuna populations.

The boats travel at about 6 knots, fishing for tuna on the surface with their jigs about 4 feet deep. The season typically runs July 1 until November. But northwest winds brought in colder water this summer and deterred many of the temperature-sensitive tuna.

Farther from shore and deeper in the ocean, the fish have a longer distance to swim to bite one of the jigs, and this season, “they weren’t biting,”' Shepheard said.

Arthur Barnard, who runs the Prince of Denmark with his father, said despite the slow season, the albacore industry is still good. “It’s pretty open,” Barnard said. “The fish just aren't around like last year.”

But buyer Parker said she worries about the impact on Astoria's economy if the fishing fleet decreases. “The fishermen traveling through Astoria on these boats fuel the economy,” she said, listing off possible purchases, including gas, groceries, entertainment and accommodations. “It brings a lot to the local economy, and it employs people.”

Morrissey, at the seafood lab, said there is no telling whether the next albacore season will bring another downswing. He said bad seasons like this happen periodically. “Everyone is hoping this is a one-time event,” Morrissey said. “One year is different from the last. It’s why fishing is a risky business.”

And there may be a silver lining. High quality albacore, Morrissey said, is selling at a premium price.

Unloading 30,000 pounds of albacore tuna from a boat in Astoria, Ore. This year a strong northwest wind brought cold water in and drove the fish deeper and farther offshore, resulting in an Oregon albacore catch less than half of what it was last year.