By Atuna
Hammerman, an American tuna fisherman/consultant and restaurant owner, calls himself Mr. Fish and claims that his most valuable product is actually information on how to make more money out of tuna.
According to Mr. Fish, the Co-Treating tuna process developed by him - which means treating tuna while alive with carbon monoxide gas and having the chilling, loining, portioning and packaging process onboard - can increase the value paid for the fish by an additional 140%, from 2.000 per M/T for the whole round tuna to approximately 4.800 per M/T for the processed one.
“Most of the large boats have the capacity to brine freeze whole fish, the portioning and loining aspect can use the brine freezers. Down below is the storage freezers where the finished goods are stored until they arrive at land. The scraps of the heads, tails and guts will be turned into fishmeal at seaâ€, he explains.
Mr. Fish presents this new and proprietary concept as an alternative for tuna fishing vessels to reduce their expenses. Fuel costs, shrinking catches, and tuna bans are some of the obstacles mentioned by him to be preventing tuna fishermen to remain competitive in the market.
He said that the process utilizes 5 people, who are already in the payroll onboard to treat the live fish.
“The bottom line is...even the large longline boats are facing large expenses and will have to start thinking on maximizing the income producing add-valued products on that particular vessel during each voyage. More money can be made cutting and freezing at sea than by catching tuna live and brine-freezing whole round for the canneriesâ€, he finalized.