10 | COAST RIVER BUSINESS JOURNAL
SEptEmBER 2019 | 11
BUSINESS NEWS
water offshore. I can’t really say I can
compare this year to any so far. It’s just a
little bit different.”
By LUKE WHITTAKER
Coast River Business Journal
P
ACIFIC NORTHWEST — For a
fourth consecutive year, the news
hasn’t been good for Oregon and
Washington commercial tuna
fisherman.
According to official figures from the
Pacific Fisheries Information Network
(PacFIN), commercial landings are down
sharply from 2018, dropping significantly
from the 10-year average in both states.
Since 2015, commercial albacore
catch has fallen each season, from a high
25 million pounds in 2015 to less than 7
million pounds so far this season. As of
Sept. 3, 6,878,958 total pounds of alba-
core have caught during the 2019 season,
about 45 percent of the 5-year average of
15,044,405.
Industry in hot water
COMMERCIAL
ALBACORE
Crew at Ilwaco Landing sort and weigh albacore tuna Aug. 20 in Ilwaco.
Since August, a time when the majority of the albacore tuna are caught
in a given season, commercial catch has flat lined.
LANDINGS
LANGUISH
‘I THINK THIS WARM WATER IS DOING SOME STRANGE THINGS AND WE JUST DON’T QUITE KNOW GOOD OR BAD.’
Wayne Heikkila | Western Fishboat Owners Association executive director
“The catch started fairly early, about
the middle of June, but there wasn’t
much,” said Western Fishboat Owners
Association Executive Director Wayne
Heikkila, who monitors the tuna fish-
ing season coastwide from California to
Washington as part of non-profit group
representing 400 albacore fishermen on
the West Coast.
“Only a few guys found fish the first
part of July and they were out further
than normal, about 200 to 300 miles out,”
Heikkila said. “It looked like that was
going to set up as the area then all of a
sudden it looked like everything pushed
into the beach. The water got really warm
offshore. Since mid-July until now it’s
[the cooler water] been more of a narrow
band from Northern California up to Van-
couver Island.”
Since August, a time when the major-
ity of the albacore tuna are caught in a
given season, commercial catch has flat
Keeping catch cool
pHOtOS BY LUKE WHIttAKER
Commercial albacore fisherman patrick Roelle, left, and Ilwaco Landing Fishermen co-owner
mike Shirley, right, walk the dock at Ilwaco Landing in August. “We’re grateful to have places like
this,” said Roelle, who explained that having a facility to offload near fishing grounds is crucial to
delivering the freshest catch possible.
lined, according to PacFIN catch figures.
Meanwhile, increased landings of
bluefin, big eye tuna, mahi-mahi and
mako sharks — more commonly caught
in the South Pacific — have been
reported along with sightings of rarer spe-
cies including Humboldt squid and blue
whales. A large sunfish washed ashore on
Benson Beach in Cape Disappointment
State Park.
Recreational tuna fishermen venturing
out into the Pacific from the mouth of the
Columbia have done comparatively well
this season, thanks in part to ocean con-
ditions bringing albacore closer to shore.
“It’s been kind of unusual,” said Heik-
kila, who believes ocean conditions could
be causing the catch anomalies.
“I think this warm water is doing some
strange things and we just don’t quite
know good or bad. With all those other
species showing up this high in Wash-
ington and Oregon, you really don’t see
that. I’ve seen it in California during
years when we’ve had El Niños, some-
times you catch some different species
off central California, but there’s been a
lot of different species around this year,”
he said.
The warm water is impacting fisheries
elsewhere, too.
“The water offshore is 70 degrees and
[if you look at water charts] it goes way
up toward Alaska,” Heikkila said.
“Alaska is having real problems with
hot water this year. There seems to be a
narrower band of cooler water anywhere
from 30 to 100 miles off the beach — the
area where we normally catch fish in the
summer — and it seems there a lot of hot
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The freshest catch commands the
highest price, making the act of chilling
albacore and maintaining a specific core
temperature both an art and a science —
and essential to preserving the flavor of
the fish in the process.
“The Chinese like that fat content fro-
zen in,” said David Moore, dock supervi-
sor at Ilwaco Landing. “You’ll see some
fish with a yellow stripe on the side, that
means it wasn’t frozen fast enough, the
fat is starting to seep out.”
There are four categories to cooling
fish. These include ice fish, which must
meet a 30-degree core requirement; fresh
fish at 32 degrees; brine frozen at -9; and
blast frozen at -30.
“Brine is the fastest way of getting
them cold,” Moore said. “Within 10 min-
utes they’re hard as a rock.”
Chinese imports impact prices
The slim albacore landings locally are
competing with cheaper imports from
China.
“The blast-frozen, sushi markets that
have traditionally gone through Canadian
buyers are having problems with cheap
imports from China,” Heikkila said. “We
started seeing that the last few years and
it’s really had an effect on ex-vessel pric-
ing. It’s taken the frozen loin prices down
almost in half in the last years.”
The fresh market seems to be doing
better than frozen overall, according to
Heikkila.
“The blast market hasn’t been that
great. It varies hour to hour. It should
be higher than the brined but it isn’t.
Whether that straightens out or not we’ll
see. It depends on the demand,” he said.