Despite the spectacular images that the photojournalist Mercedes Menéndez left on Monday night, with the arrival of the first bigeye of the harvest of this year of the bluefin tuna, the truth is that there is concern in the Canarian brotherhoods about the delay in the arrival of such a “rich delicacy”, according to what Félix Melo, from the Los Cristianos brotherhood, tells us. “These two who were caught the same way were here, because they found food, but the great emigration has not yet arrived, and they are almost a month behind last year,” he commented.
The first bigeye of this fishing season arrived at the port of Los Cristianos on Monday, the first day the bluefin tuna ban came into effect in Tenerife. The two captured specimens are large, one weighing 297 and the other weighing 332 kilos.
The capture was the work of a fishing boat from Los Abrigos named Luz Miguel, with the fishermen Yeray Amaral and Goyo Amaral. Another fishing vessel, this one from Playa San Juan, also captured another piece of similar size.
According to Félix Melo, “not many boats are still leaving for the harvest because they cannot be seen, they are taking a long time to arrive, so many fishermen are now in Fuerteventura catching albacore”. “The bluefin tuna harvest is still quite weak for now,” he said, although he acknowledged that “the sea always has mysteries and they just appear this week or the next.”
In the waters of the Canary Islands there is an abundance of bluefin tuna, a highly valued species in markets such as Japan, but the 248 island artisanal fishing boats are unable to capture all their assigned quota. Since 2019, the campaign ends each year wasting tons of Thunnus thynnus (bluefin tuna), despite being crucial for the pocket of fishermen in the Archipelago.
By 2023, the Government of Spain increased the amount of bluefin tuna that can be caught in the Atlantic, the Strait and the Mediterranean by 10%, up to a total of 6,784 tons. And the subsector in the Islands welcomes the fact that the 691 extra tons obtained by the State contribute to increasing the Canary Islands quota, which stands at 537,500 kilos, 1.8% more than in 2022, although it estimates that it will be very complicated. “To be able to achieve everything,” says Melo.
In addition, he points out that last year it was not possible to get close to that figure, like other years in which the assigned boats completed their catch limits in just one week. The Islands have some 248 boats to be able to capture those 537.5 tons, 8.7% of the total for Spain.
In 2019, the Daniel y Andreas boat, from the Tajao Brotherhood, managed to capture a 434-kilo bigeye tuna, the largest achieved in recent years in the Canary Islands, although there are specimens that can reach 600 kilos.
