Last year’s season was a respectable one, with 1200 tonnes of albacore tuna landed in the port of Lorient Kerman. There are hopes that this year’s fishery will be a good one, as Lorient’s pair trawlers start on the tuna season.
The Naoned and Dolmen pair team started at the beginning of July, fishing for albacore tuna in the Bay of Biscay and landing their first catch of the season early in the month, discharging 12 tonnes of albacore and four tonnes of bluefin tuna.
‘It’s a tentative start. But the season has barely started,’ said Yonel Madec, head of the fisheries division of Lorient Keroman SEM, which manages the fishing port’s infrastructure.
There’s pressure to catch the tuna as they pass through French waters during the summer, and the Annytia and Carmalia pair team, also operated by APAK, have joined Naoned and Dolmen in hunting for tuna.
Finding tuna calls for both luck and persererance, and the abundance is never easy to predict. Another ten vessels from La Turballe and Le Guilvinec, and also from Ireland, are expected to join the fishery for albacore tuna in the coming days and weeks.
