Tuna

What is a Tuna fish?
Tuna the largest of the mackerels, is called horse mackerel and tunny on the Atlantic coast and tuna on the Pacific. In structure, it strongly resembles the common mackerel, except that the body is proportionately and grayish mottled silver below.

Tuna is a migratory fish. It swims fast and the large ones usually feed on suids and small fishes. There are various species of tuna: the long tailed tuna, found in Hawaii and Australia; above the albacore, which differs from the rest by its greatly elongated pectoral fins; the yellow tuna, the large kind with very long dorsal and anal fins in adults; the largest species which has been known to reach a length of 14 feet and weight 1,600 lbs' and the big eye tuna, which are found in the Atlantic, Pcific and Indian Oceans.

The market species of tuna are classified as either temperate or tropical. The tropicl species which include yellow fin and the big-eye grow to large sizes, sometimes exceeding 100 kgs., they generally have a short life span of less than five years. The temperate species, albacore, live longer, lasting up to 15 years.

What methods are use to catch Tuna?
Harpoons, traps, and trawling gears are still being used today in catching tuna but three other fish=catching methods account for the major share of tube in the market today. The long-line is dominantly employed while the used of line-bait to attract a shool of fish is second in terms of land weight. Purse sening, the next in rank, is reputedly superior among the three in terms of catch per unit of effort.

When is the advancement of tuna fishing in the Philippines?
The development of tuna fishing in the Philippines came at a late stage. It was only in 1950 that the first systematic survey of Philippine tuna potential was undertaken. The Pacific Fiahery development Company of the Philippines acquired two 50-ton capacity, tuna boats equipped with the long line and manned by experienced Taiwanes fishermen. The company explored the Sulu Sea and reported very encouraging findings. Unfortunately, the business potential of the industry was never tapped.

It took 15 years before this survey was follwed up. In 1965 an American firm entered into a partnership with a Filipino outfit, Linda-Mar, and sent two boats to selected ares to determine if tuna fishing was lucrative. Two years and Php6 million worth of investments later, the partnership folded up in 1967.

RJL Martinez Fishing Corporation, owned by brothers Ruben, Jose and Luis Martinez ventured into the industry and struck gold. The company's most important coup was the commercialization of the the payao, a bamboo raft rigged underneath with coconut fronds and sometimes lighted on dark nights to attract fish. RJL succeeded in adopting the payao in deeper waters.

The commercial fishing of tuna is confined within the territorial zone and the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) especially in Sulu Sea, Mindanao Sea, Moro Gulf, Celebes Sea and the waters off Western Luzon.

Small tunas can be processed commercially into salted flakes (bacalao type), fish chips, fish sauce, fish paste and fish sausage. Canned tuna, whether solid, chunked, grated or flaked is in great demand worldwide.

Yellow fin, skipjack, albacore and bluefin are the most commonly used specied in the canning industry.