The Rise & Fall of the Tuna Industry in San Diego
Written and Edited by: Arnold Fernandes
In Memory of my father
Captain Joaquim Fernandes
This web site is dedicated to all my friends in the tuna industry and in memory of those no longer with us.
Fishermen's Memorial, Point Loma, California
From the East Coast to the West Coast
Many of the San Diego Fishermen started out on the East Coast fishing off the Grand Banks in the North Atlantic but eventually ended up in West Coast to escape the ruthless storms and the bitter cold of the North Atlantic Ocean.
My father came to the East Coast from Portugal and settled in Gloucester, Massachusetts where he fished as a doryman on the Gloucester schooners in the North Atlantic.
In 1926, our family, moved to San Diego, California. Where my father with many other fishermen began fishing for tuna off the coast of Mexico.
SAN DIEGO
From the early thirties and up until the late seventies San Diego was known as the Tuna Capital of the World. Over 40,000 people were employed directly or indirectly by the Tuna Industry. Tuna was being served in over 80% of all American households. Large Corporations like, Van Camp Seafood Company, Starkist Foods, Westgate California, Bumble Bee Seafood, Pan Pacific and a host of other small canners processed tuna in San Diego and west coast. The Tuna industry in San Diego was ranked third only to the Navy and Aircraft Industry bringing in over $30,000,000.00 a year to the San Diego economy. This doesn't seem like much by todays standards but in those days it was a lot of money.
World War II and the Tuna Industry
When WWII started, most of the Tuna Fleet was taken over by the Navy and used as "Yippy Boats" (YP's) to shuttle food, troops and supplies in the South Pacific. Many never returned.
YP 29 Originaly the M.V. Normandy
1940 just before the war started my father sold his vessel the "Santa Ines" to the Hawaiian Pineapple and Tuna Co. and it was fishing just outside Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked. The Santa Ines was one of the first vessels to be commandeered by the Navy to help our badly damaged fleet in the South Pacific.
The Santa Ines survived the war and was returned to San Diego to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. My brother and I went down to the 11th Naval District Destroyer Base in hopes of buying it back, but the Santa Ines was in such bad shape that we passed it up and it was sold to an unknown bidder and eventually ended up fishing out of Mexico.
M.V. Santa Ines (model by: Arnold Fernandes)
Before the war most of the Tuna Clippers in San Diego and San Pedro were independent ventures owned and operated by one or more individuals. My father had his vessel the "Santa Ines" built in 1936 at San Diego Marine Construction Ship Yard, now known as Southwest Marine, at a cost of about 90,000.00. Todays super seiners would cost over $10,000,000.00
I made my first fishing voyage on the Santa Ines when I was 13 years old. In those days fishing was done by hook and line using live bait as chum. The average vessel's capacity was 100 ton to 200 ton. A 200 ton tuna clipper was considered a large boat. Today the average super seiner is 1200 tons to 2000 tons. A 1200 ton seiner is about 223 ft. long, with a 42 ft. beam, 18 ft. draft, speed about 18 knots, fuel capacity 250,000 gallons of diesel, range 3,600 nautical miles, crew 21 including helicopter pilot, nylon seine net 5,280 feet long.
1200 Ton Seiner, starting a set on a school of tuna.
Bait Boats
On the old livebait boats sardines or anchovies we used as chum and fisherman fished with bamboo poles from steel racks outside the stern and port rails of the vessel. So between fighting the weather, and sharks the tuna were pulled in one by one until the vessels load capacity was reached. After the vessel was loaded and the fish refrigerated in the holds the vessel would head for home port to offload at the cannery, get paid, make necessary repairs, put on provisions and fuel, kiss the family good-bye and head out to sea again. Most of the fishing was done off of Mexico, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and the Gallapagos Islands.
The main production areas of today are, Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Spain, Italy, Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand.
Most of the tuna today are caught by purse seine or long line.
IRON MEN ON WOODEN SHIPS, fishing in the racks
After WWII
After the war large Corporations came into the picture and began buying up most of the main canneries in California and all the way to Washington State. Van Camp was taken over by Ralston Purina, Starkist was bought by S.J. Hines, Bumble Bee by Castle and Cook, and Pan Pacific was acquired by CHB better known as California Home Brands. The big corporations made deals the independent boat owner couldn't refuse, like building new boats with little or no money down. So they became partners with of course the canners holding the controlling interest.
Foreign Competition
Then came the foreign competition, Japan began shipping thousands of tons of Frozen Tuna to the United States duty free to be processed by our canners because our aging boats couldn't produce enough Tuna to meet the increasing demand in the US. So the San Diego fishermen began looking for more efficient methods of catching tuna in order to compete with the foreign trade. They began building large super seiners that could travel over three thousand miles without refueling. They switched to purse seining using nylon nets over a mile long, helicopters, hydraulic power blocks with the latest fishing technology. This looked like the answer to the San Diego fishermen's prayer, and it was but unfortunately not the end of their problems.
Porpoise Fishing
In purse seining associated with porpoise, a school of porpoise is herded like a herd of cattle by the chase boats, (small outboard motor speed boats), the porpoise are encircled together with the tuna, then the net is closed at the bottom with galvanized rings and cable like a purse. Once the net is closed the porpoise are released and the fish are brought aboard by brailing with a brailer scoop that scoops about one ton at a time. The tuna is immediately stored and frozen in the fish wells.
My son Jim in chase boat.
The Eastern Tropical Pacific is the only place that I know of where porpoise and tuna travel together. So fishing for tuna associated with porpoise became the west coast tuna fishermen's biggest challenge. "How to catch the tuna with a net without harming the porpoise." so with a lot of help from the National Marine Fisheries Service, working together with the San Diego and San Pedro fishermen, they came up with an improved nylon net and a new back down procedure that could release the porpoise from the net and still retain the tuna. A lot of credit goes to Captain Harold Medina who came up with what is now known as the "Medina Panel" small mesh at the end of the net (apron) that keeps the porpoise from getting entangled so they can swim out of the net. The porpoise are forced to the end of the net by what is called the "Back Down Procedure" This procedure became standard among our west coast fishermen saving thousands of porpoise and lowering the mortality rate to almost zero. The US fishermen have always been concerned with saving the porpoise, sometime at the risk of their own lives. Many times crew members will jump into the net to help release a porpoise in trouble. A good friend of mine saw his son killed by a shark while trying to help a porpoise out of the net.
Sharks are always a great danger in the net
Above Sketch of seiner backing down after a set to let the porpoise escape over the Medina Panel
So eventually due to over regulation, rising costs, environmental pressure and a host of other problems the big canning corporations decided to close the canneries on the west coast sell the fleets to foreign interests and move on. Today the battle still goes on to keep embargoes on Tuna caught associated with porpoise. And God only knows how many porpoise are being slaughtered by foreign fishermen that are unregulated and don't have the expertise of the US fishermen to save the porpoise.
From Ship to Shore
Preparing Tuna for your table
When the tuna clipper returns to its home port, it heads straight for the cannery where large buckets are lowered into the refrigerated wells. The tuna is transferred to large bins for weighing on the scales. The tuna is then stored in a large freezer waiting to be processed.
Most of the tuna processing today is done by foreign canners all over the world and distributed throughout the world including the United States, and you can sure tell the difference in the cans you buy today in your super markets. In my opinion the quality control that we had here in the U.S. just isn't there anymore.
Links
CLICK ON ANY LINK BELOW TO VISIT MORE EXCITING WEB SITES
Click on Helicopter to view page
Thanks to Pilot "Tillman Jeffrey" for the inspiration
For latest Tuna News click on Bluefin Tuna above
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
click on image
Fisherman's Memorial, Gloucester, Massachussetts
A taste of Gloucester
click on bluefine above for another great tuna web site
Fishing Video Clips
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY SITE
Site updated September 10, 2008