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American Tuna Dealers - Fish Buyers

All tuna species commercially harvested are sold by the fishermen to fish dealers. Fish dealers are a critical component in the domestic and international distribution chain of US tuna products and are the “interface” between the fisherman and the market for his catch.

In particular, the commercial harvest of bluefin tuna must, by law, be sold to tuna dealers who are licensed by the Federal Government.

Bluefin, in accordance with federal regulation, are tagged at the time of delivery from the fishing vessel. At the same time, documentation is filled out for each fish containing vital information on the catch and the fishing vessel, and this must be forwarded to NMFS in a timely manner.

Tuna, unlike most other species of fish, requires special handling after pick up at the vessel. The tunas targeted by the US fishery are in the main, bluefin, yellowfin and bigeye tuna. These tunas, when commercially harvested, are largely intended to be eaten raw, as sushi or sashimi. In some cases, yellowfin and, in rare cases, bluefin is sold for grilling. However, in all cases, freshness is a critical mandate. This places tremendous emphasis on the proper and expeditious handing of the catch. US tuna is, by definition, “dayboat” catch. It is not possible to leave a tuna intended to be sold commercially, laying on the deck of a boat or on a dock for any length of time in warm weather. It has to be constantly chilled. When a fish is delivered to the fish buyer, the fish buyer must maintain it in a refrigerated condition. Finally, these tunas are easily bruised, and this bruising can affect price. Therefore, these fish are generally handled very carefully by the employees of the fish dealer.

Tuna fish dealers have long expertise in grading of tuna relative to quality.

Tuna that is flown to Japan by airfreight, chiefly bluefin and bigeye tuna, must be prepared by the fish buyer for shipment. On arrival at the dealer facility, the fish must be placed in a slurry tank of flake ice and seawater for a very long time in order to remove sufficient BTU’s from the fish to achieve a core temperature of 0º celsius (32º farenheit). The fish must be properly cleaned by removing any unwanted parts of organs that may have been left in the fish by the fisherman. The fish is then put into a “casket”, essentially, a heavy, reinforced, insulated cardboard box containing sufficient flake ice to maintain the core temperature of the fish during transport to Japan. The fish is then taken to the nearest international airport to be put on the next flight.

Yellowfin is a product for domestic distribution but it benefits from similar handling procedures as those used for bigeye and bluefin.

In addition to handling fish, Dealers also provide critical support services to their fishermen including, in some cases, delivering bait and ice to fishing vessels prior to a fishing trip. This is particularly true in connection with bluefin. It is no small task to coordinate the dropping off of ice and bait as well as the simultaneous pickup of catch during the height of the season when vessels are arriving and leaving around the clock from various ports. These logistics are sometimes brutal because fish arrive and fishing boats depart during the height of the season at any time of the day or night and the fish buyer must be there on time to avoid delays and to avoid spoilage of the catch.

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