The popularity of tuna knows no bounds in the Algarve, be it raw, pan seared, grilled, or in cans, it’s popular with the Algarveans.
Travelling across the Atlantic Ocean, large schools of Bluefin tuna race to their spawning grounds in the warm seas of the Mediterranean around Sicily and the Adriatic. For thousands of years, since Phoenician times, the Bluefin tuna have been caught off the coast of the Algarve; they appear on Roman coins and mosaics such as found at Milreu in Estoi.
Tuna and the aristocracy
Afonso III, the first king of Portugal, reserved tuna and corvina as a monopoly of the crown in the 13th century. Then in the 14th and 15th centuries the majority of the industry was organised by Sicilians and Genoese, but they were literally taxed out of existence by the crown. Having to pay 60% to 70% taxes, there was no money left to replace equipment or buy the salt needed for preserving.
In 1773 the Marquěs de Pombas created the Companhia Geral das Pescarias Reaes do Algarve and the industry slowly began to revive once more. Then in 1830, Queen D Maria II cut the tax rate on Bluefin tuna, broke the back of the monopoly and decreed that any Portuguese fisherman could fish in Portuguese waters. The industry took off big time from then on, in fact there weren’t enough hands to catch and sell so many Bluefins!
Canning tuna
Spanish, Greek and Italian immigrants arrived and by the second half of the 19th century they opened the first canning factories in the Algarve; and by 1890 The Royal Fisheries Company was established. With an annual catch of approximately 20,000 huge fish brought to the canneries, the golden age of tuna fishing dawned.
Almadravas or Armações (tuna traps) were favoured by the Portuguese fishermen. By using thousands of meters of nets, cables and buoys along with hundreds of anchors and as many as 200 men; an armação of up to 600 hectares would be built in the sea. The nets would be floated by the cables and buoys into a three sided square with a bottom net below; boats would be alongside the nets and as the Bluefins swam into the open square, the boats would gradually push the sides and close the gap. The bottom net would be raised and the exposed tuna would be slaughtered and dragged onto the boats. This was very hard, bloody and skilled work and the last of the tuna in the centre of the armação were slaughtered by men jumping onto the net and hooking the huge fish onto the waiting boats.
The town of Vila Real de Santo António was home to over fifty fish processing factories in the 1950s, represented by the Tuna Exchange, which set the price of the fish for the rest of Europe. However, in the latter part of the 20th century the number of tuna caught declined year by year and the last operating armação caught just one tuna in 1972.
Tuna and the Japanese
Bluefin tuna is used to produce the high priced delicacies sashimi and sushi in Japan, so it was logical that Japanese businessmen bought into the Bluefin fishing industry in the Algarve in the 1990s. Fishermen were encouraged to catch the small Bluefins that could be farmed in pens in Japan, which were then fattened and killed when they were fully grown. These were highly valued and brought great profits, as they were sold all year round in the Japanese market place. This has created its own problems; first the smaller Bluefins are no longer wild and breeding, therefore the natural stocks are depleted more than ever. Secondly, the farmed fish have to be fed until they are big enough for market – which in turn depletes the sea of the small fish needed to satisfy these huge appetites.
Fishing quotas
Despite many attempts to put quotas on fishing for Bluefin tuna, the limits set have been broken time and again by many countries. It is estimated that 90% of Atlantic Bluefin tuna has disappeared and they are in danger of becoming extinct (as they are in the Black Sea). Blatant abuse of the fishing restrictions led the EU to reduce the “season” by a couple of weeks in European waters. However, it has proved a difficult task to monitor the many ports where Bluefins are landed illegally; there just aren’t enough inspectors to ensure the law is being obeyed. Scientists recommended a cap on the fishing to maintain sustainability; but in 2008 alone ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) estimated that more than three times the recommended number of Bluefin tuna were being caught illegally.
Consequences
It takes ten years for a tuna to become sexually active making it vulnerable to overfishing. Overfishing threatens the sustainability of fish stocks and of the tuna fishing industry itself. Those tuna that are raised in pens are not bred; therefore, with less tuna being spawned, extinction is inevitable.
Good news
With the decline in the tuna fishing industry along the coast of the Algarve, we were lucky enough to discover a new way to use this fabulous coastline -tourism!
Just when the decline in fishing bit hard in the Algarve, the tourists arrived to enjoy our sunny shores. Suddenly in the dawn of the 1960s, travel become affordable, people had plenty of work and had a thirst for adventure. Jobs that were lost in the canning factories opened up in the tourist industry and suddenly the Algarve blossomed. There’s still a lot of fishing going on in the region, even if not for tuna. Just go to one of the many fresh fish markets in the Algarve, and take a look at the fabulous displays of fish on offer - Olhão market is a prime example!
Brought to you by Meravista – the place where smart people search for Algarve property for sale.
Tuna fish and the Algarve
by Sun’s Dragon
The popularity of tuna knows no bounds in the Algarve, be it raw, pan seared, grilled, or in cans, it’s popular with the Algarveans.
Travelling across the Atlantic Ocean, large schools of Bluefin tuna race to their spawning grounds in the warm seas of the Mediterranean around Sicily and the Adriatic. For thousands of years, since Phoenician times, the Bluefin tuna have been caught off the coast of the Algarve; they appear on Roman coins and mosaics such as found at Milreu in Estoi.
Tuna and the aristocracy
Afonso III, the first king of Portugal, reserved tuna and corvina as a monopoly of the crown in the 13th century. Then in the 14th and 15th centuries the majority of the industry was organised by Sicilians and Genoese, but they were literally taxed out of existence by the crown. Having to pay 60% to 70% taxes, there was no money left to replace equipment or buy the salt needed for preserving.
In 1773 the Marquěs de Pombas created the Companhia Geral das Pescarias Reaes do Algarve and the industry slowly began to revive once more. Then in 1830, Queen D Maria II cut the tax rate on Bluefin tuna, broke the back of the monopoly and decreed that any Portuguese fisherman could fish in Portuguese waters. The industry took off big time from then on, in fact there weren’t enough hands to catch and sell so many Bluefins!
Canning tuna
Spanish, Greek and Italian immigrants arrived and by the second half of the 19th century they opened the first canning factories in the Algarve; and by 1890 The Royal Fisheries Company was established. With an annual catch of approximately 20,000 huge fish brought to the canneries, the golden age of tuna fishing dawned.
Almadravas or Armações (tuna traps) were favoured by the Portuguese fishermen. By using thousands of meters of nets, cables and buoys along with hundreds of anchors and as many as 200 men; an armação of up to 600 hectares would be built in the sea. The nets would be floated by the cables and buoys into a three sided square with a bottom net below; boats would be alongside the nets and as the Bluefins swam into the open square, the boats would gradually push the sides and close the gap. The bottom net would be raised and the exposed tuna would be slaughtered and dragged onto the boats. This was very hard, bloody and skilled work and the last of the tuna in the centre of the armação were slaughtered by men jumping onto the net and hooking the huge fish onto the waiting boats.
The town of Vila Real de Santo António was home to over fifty fish processing factories in the 1950s, represented by the Tuna Exchange, which set the price of the fish for the rest of Europe. However, in the latter part of the 20th century the number of tuna caught declined year by year and the last operating armação caught just one tuna in 1972.
Tuna and the Japanese
Bluefin tuna is used to produce the high priced delicacies sashimi and sushi in Japan, so it was logical that Japanese businessmen bought into the Bluefin fishing industry in the Algarve in the 1990s. Fishermen were encouraged to catch the small Bluefins that could be farmed in pens in Japan, which were then fattened and killed when they were fully grown. These were highly valued and brought great profits, as they were sold all year round in the Japanese market place. This has created its own problems; first the smaller Bluefins are no longer wild and breeding, therefore the natural stocks are depleted more than ever. Secondly, the farmed fish have to be fed until they are big enough for market – which in turn depletes the sea of the small fish needed to satisfy these huge appetites.
Despite many attempts to put quotas on fishing for Bluefin tuna, the limits set have been broken time and again by many countries. It is estimated that 90% of Atlantic Bluefin tuna has disappeared and they are in danger of becoming extinct (as they are in the Black Sea). Blatant abuse of the fishing restrictions led the EU to reduce the “season” by a couple of weeks in European waters. However, it has proved a difficult task to monitor the many ports where Bluefins are landed illegally; there just aren’t enough inspectors to ensure the law is being obeyed. Scientists recommended a cap on the fishing to maintain sustainability; but in 2008 alone ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) estimated that more than three times the recommended number of Bluefin tuna were being caught illegally.
Consequences
It takes ten years for a tuna to become sexually active making it vulnerable to overfishing. Overfishing threatens the sustainability of fish stocks and of the tuna fishing industry itself. Those tuna that are raised in pens are not bred; therefore, with less tuna being spawned, extinction is inevitable.
Good news
With the decline in the tuna fishing industry along the coast of the Algarve, we were lucky enough to discover a new way to use this fabulous coastline -tourism!
Just when the decline in fishing bit hard in the Algarve, the tourists arrived to enjoy our sunny shores. Suddenly in the dawn of the 1960s, travel become affordable, people had plenty of work and had a thirst for adventure. Jobs that were lost in the canning factories opened up in the tourist industry and suddenly the Algarve blossomed. There’s still a lot of fishing going on in the region, even if not for tuna. Just go to one of the many fresh fish markets in the Algarve, and take a look at the fabulous displays of fish on offer - Olhão market is a prime example!
Brought to you by Meravista – the place where smart people search for Algarve property for sale.