Albacore / David Haworth / Longliner

ABOUT THE FISHERMAN: DAVID HAWORTH

David is a heavyweight in the world of California fisheries. He has been fishing out of San Diego for 40 years, using traps, nets, lines and harpoons. He is a second generation tuna fisherman, and works hard to keep consumers interested and able to buy local seafood. He has a booth at San Diego's Tuna Harbor Dockside Market, which operates every Saturday just like ours here in Santa Barbara.

David has been actively representing California fishermen by participating in various industry and fisheries management bodies, most notably, the Pacific Fisheries Management Council. This Council is one of 8 regional bodies of NOAA that set policies for fisheries. The Council process is highly bureaucratic, sometimes taking many years to make changes, but also highly participatory, taking pains to balance representation from commercial and recreational fleets, environmental groups, academia and government at all levels.

Fun fact: David Haworth's son, Nick, also a fisherman, lost his dog out at sea and found her alive and well 5 weeks later! Read the full story here.

ABOUT ALBACORE:

Albacore is one of the West Coast’s flagship sustainable fisheries, catching fish one-by-one with hook and line off of small boats with no bycatch. Fisherman Tom bled each albacore to create a premium product.

Albacore’s high abundance, along with tough regulations and effective monitoring in US waters has created a highly sustainable fishery, earning Seafood Watch’s ‘green’ Best Choice label.

Able to swim up to 50 mph, Albacore are too fast and agile to get caught in a net! Albacore schools are highly migratory, following squid and other bait fish, which in turn home in on the zooplankton soup that blooms in areas of strong ocean upwelling and eddying.  Albacore can roam as far as Japan, southern Baja and northern Oregon in a single year.  Locating them is the big challenge, as sometimes they are very far offshore.  They tend to visit West Coast waters as juveniles, under 25 lbs, which means they are low in mercury compared to other tuna.

Our tuna this week is very young and small (about 2 feet long and 13 lbs each). It is also packed with omegas, selenium, and other good stuff, and is free of mercury risk!

This fish is extra fresh and sashimi grade -- perfect for a quick sear on all sides and sliced with a dipping sauce, or make a poke!

See our recipe ideas for Albacore here.

ABOUT THE FISHERY:

The Fishing Vessel Kaylee H is a long-line boat run by father son duo Nick and David Haworth in San Diego.

Longlining uses a main line with smaller lines attached loaded with baits separated at regular intervals. Longlining for tuna takes place at the ocean surface more than 200 miles from shore, which is just outside the boundary of U.S. waters.

This type of longlining is not allowed closer to shore to avoid interactions with coastal seabirds and marine mammals. Gear restrictions and regulations on longline operations are enforced to minimize bycatch of sensitive species. Observer coverage is high and all fishermen receive training on safe release of protected species using specialized equipment they are required to use. Consequently, interactions with protected species such as sea turtles, marine mammals, and seabirds in these fisheries are rare and survival rates are estimated to be high for all gear types.

San Diego tuna longline boats typically go out for trips lasting 1-4 weeks. Opah and Wahoo sometimes school with the tuna and are taken as desired 'bycatch'. All three of these species are fast-growing and have high reproductive rates. Management measures are in place to minimize take of juveniles.

Historically, it was the East Coast's demand for canned tuna in the early 1900s (following a sardine shortage) that encouraged the launch of Southern California's tuna industry. Boats in San Pedro, Long Beach, and San Diego began fishing California waters to support San Diego's first cannery, The Pacific Tuna Canning Company.

These days its hard to find American canned tuna, but you can find it on our Shop!