Remaining local tuna industry nets rising prices.

Remaining local tuna industry nets rising prices By RANDALL PATNODE

Although about half of the tuna fishing business once based in San Diego has followed economic currents to foreign shores in the last few years, what's left here is enjoying at least a temporary surge in prices.

"We are cautiously appreciative of the fact that we don't have the same problems as before," said August Felando, president of the San Diego-based American Tunaboat Association.

With tuna prices leaping back to 1979 and 1980 highs, San Diego-based fishermen are enjoying one of their best years in history, Felando said.

Tuna prices climbed 30 to 40 percent -- to about $1,100 a ton -- as of July 1. That's when the latest contract between the fishermen and several of the canneries took effect.

"The boats are in the best position in four or five years," said fisheries consultant Jose Munoz. The combination of greater demand and a fishing slowdown in the Indian Ocean has pushed prices upward. Munoz said.

Before 1983, tunaboats crowded San Diego harbor, unloading their catch of skipjack, yellowfin and other tuna species for two of the world's largest canneries. About this time of year, Munoz said, boats would be double-and triple-parked in the harbor as the crews took off to celebrate the holidays. "You won't see that this year," he said.

In 1983 and 1984, much of the U.S. tuna fleet that regularly visited San Diego followed the flight of tuna canneries to overseas locales, such as Puerto Rico and Thailand, where labor is cheaper than in the United States.

At the same time, many boat owners strapped themselves with high-interest payments on new vessels and equipment, making it more imperative to cut costs.

Despite the loss of thousands of jobs and dozen of boats, San Diego has been the survivor in the thinning of the U.S. tuna industry, Felando said. About 80 percent of the U.S. fleet is still owned and operated by San Diegans, and that percentage actually increased when the U.S. industry fell on hard times, Felando said.

About 75 of the 300 boats that fish the world's tuna waters are U.S. owned. The capacity of the fleet has fallen from 125,000 tons in 1983 to 79,000 tons in 1987. The value of tuna landings in that period has fallen from $219 million in 1983 -- or nearly $875 million in supermarket value -- or only $112 million in supermarket value.

At one time, San Diego was home port to six tuna canneries, including Bumble-bee, Star-Kist and Chicken-of-the-Sea, Now only one commercial tuna cannery, Star-Kist is Long Beach, remains in the United States.

At the same time, fishermen made investments in larger fishing boats that left them in a bind.

Patrick Rose, president of Bumblebee Seafoods Inc. in San Diego, agreed that the industry is experiencing one of its best years ever although he was relucant to divulge specific numbers. Raw fish prices have skyrocketed in the last six months, but his company has been successful in passing those costs along to consumers.

The cause of the price increases leaves Rose scratching his head. "I'll be damned if we can figure out," he said. Perhaps it's the decline in the value of the dollar and a smaller catch worldwide, he speculated.

Rose said Bumblebee's business probably would not reflect the larger tuna industry since it concentrates on the white albacore tuna, which has a different set of economics.

Different is an understatement, said Western Fishboat Owners Association's Bill Perkins. "On the Pacific Coast, it stinks," he said of the albacore business. "The market isn't very big and the catch rate is small," he said.

That assessment applies to the small family operators, who account for maybe 1 percent of the worldwide albacore catch. In the past couple of years, the larger albacore boats -- 70 footers with a capacity of 80 to 100 tons -- have been plying the waters of the South Pacific and unloading their catches at the canneries there.

These boats have been doing well, Perkins said, and another fleet of 48 boats will be leaving for the South Pacific in December.

About 42 to the 240 boats in the Pacific albacore fleet call San Diego home.

All tunaboats can expect an easier time fishing the Pacific if a new fishing treaty is ratified by the Senate and signed by 15 Pacific nations. The boats now face fines and possible seizure by foreign authorities, who argue all fish within their 12-mile limits are proprietary. The larger fishing nations claim that a prohibition on tuna fishing is unrealistic because the tuna migrate thousands of miles a year.