6 • AUGUST 2022
FEATURE STORY
COAST RIVER BUSINESS JOURNAL
‘I’M GOING TO HEAD
RIGHT BACK OUT
TOMORROW, JUST
HAVE TO GET SOME
GEAR, BUT I’LL BE
FISHING BY TUESDAY.
WE TURN AND BURN
AS QUICK AS WE CAN
— THE SUMMER IS
ONLY SO LONG.’
Vanya Taylor, skipper
of F/V Gooney Bird
Continued from Page 5
LUKE WHITTAKER
Get to The Point.
Crew offload tuna at Safe Coast Seafoods on Aug. 7 in Ilwaco. Albacore are flash frozen immediately
after being caught to preserve quality, and then loined at local processing plants.
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Last year, Safe Coast Seafoods and Ilwaco Land-
ing each recorded their first offloads of the 2021 com-
mercial tuna season on July 12. Much of the delay
this season was due to scattered fish further offshore.
“Earlier this year you had to go quite a ways off-
shore to find them, up to 200 miles,” Taylor said. “We
spread out when the fishing gets slow, then converge
once we find them; takes a lot of the guessing out of
it.”
Tools such as SeaView, satellite fishing software
that uses oceanic and weather data, along with tradi-
tional sonar, are instrumental in helping locate tuna,
Taylor explained.
“It really helps pinpoint where you want to go look,
you’re not blind out there that’s for sure,” he said.
The time spent on land will be short, however,
while the fishing is hot offshore.
“I’m going to head right back out tomorrow, just
have to get some gear, but I’ll be fishing by Tuesday.
We turn and burn as quick as we can — the summer is
only so long,” Taylor said.
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Albacore tuna are hoisted offloaded from the F/V Gooney Bird on Aug. 7 at Safe Coast Seafoods.
August has historically been the month with the heaviest commercial tuna landings for Oregon and
Washington state, with the season wrapping up around October, depending on weather.
In 2021, when commercial albacore landings were
impacted both by fishery conditions and COVID pre-
cautions, Oregon and Washington state each recorded
their slowest seasons in two decades.
In Oregon, 192 participating vessels landed 1,460
metric tons of albacore at an ex-vessel value of $6.6
million, according to the Pacific Fishery Management
Council. Washington landings by 110 vessels totaled
1,842 metric tons with a value of nearly $8.2 million.
Both states had the smallest number of working tuna
boats since 1991.
The record year for Oregon landings was 2004,
when 450 boats brought in 4,878 tons. In Washington
waters, the modern record was 10,793 tons in 2003
landed by 323 vessels.
Adjusted for inflation, Oregon’s most lucrative
recent year was 2011, when 4,392 tons sold for $22.6
million. Washington’s best tuna year moneywise was
2012, when 329 boats landed 8,774 tons that sold for
$33.7 million.