Tuna - Canneries
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| Foreign Longliner unloading at the Canneries (Click on picture for a larger picture) |
In contrast to the small-scale nature of the domestic fisheries, American Samoa is also homeport to a distant-water fleet of large commercial vessels that deliver tuna to the canneries on Tutuila Island. These vessels fish beyond American Samoa's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the central and western Pacific Ocean. Fleet composition and landings have changed over the 50+ years that the canneries have been in operation.
Annual tuna landings processed by the canneries in American Samoa have run about 160,000 to 220,000 tons in recent years. Skipjack tuna accounted for most of the deliveries, followed by yellowfin and albacore tuna. The catch by gear type was purse seine, longline, and troll.
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| U.S. Purse Seiner (Click on picture for a larger picture) |
The current fleet consists primarily of (1) U.S. purse seiners that fish for skipjack and yellowfin tuna, (2) U.S. trollers that fish for albacore tuna, and (3) foreign longliners that fish for albacore, yellowfin, and bigeye tuna. Since 1995 the small local longliners began selling parts of their catch to the canneries. Starting in 2000 and growing rapidly since then has been a fleet of large local longliners that sell most of their catch of primarily albacore to the canneries.
In addition, transshipments of tuna caught by purse seine are delivered to American Samoa by freezer vessels, and foreign sashimi longliners occasionally deliver part of their catch to the canneries.