THE FIRST tuna to be landed in Cornwall this year arrived this week as boats returned from the fishing grounds 200 miles from Land's End.
The Nova Spero, under skipper Shaun Edwards, had some success locating the shoals and returned to Newlyn on Tuesday with 950 albacore tuna.
Struggling
However the Ben Loyal, skippered by Quentin Knights, fared less well, struggling to find them and caught less than 100 fish.
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This year will be the fifth season that Cornish vessels have fished alongside a fleet of Spanish "pole" tuna boats and is a far cry from the so-called tuna wars of the mid 1990s when Spanish vessels "attacked" Cornish vessels using drift-nets.
Nathan de Rozarieux, chief executive of Seafood Cornwall which is helping to market the catches, said: "Since drift-nets were banned the Spanish skippers have been very helpful and have provided invaluable help and advice to their Cornish counterparts.
"The Spanish fleet, which has a dedicated medical support ship, also came to the aid of the Ben Loyal which had a medical emergency on board during this trip, stabilising the sick crewman before arranging a helicopter evacuation to Ireland."
Despite being the third most commonly consumed fish in the UK, the Cornish vessels are struggling to sell all of their tuna catches in the UK at a price that is economically viable.
As a result more than half of the catch from this trip will be sold in France where there is stronger demand.
Fantastic
"We know it can take years to change consumer purchasing patterns so we are still in the early days with Cornish tuna, but with such a fantastic product like this it is strange that it really hasn't caught on here yet," added Mr de Rozarieux.
article copyright THE CORNISHMAN
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