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Top Species before inventory is gone and demand picks up again. Within the domestic albacore market, Nancy Fitzpatrick, executive director of the Oregon Albacore Commission in Lincoln City, Ore., says preliminary numbers showed Oregon's fshery had its second-best season for exvessel value, coming in at $16 million vs. the average $11.8 million. Te 2013 ex-vessel price averaged $1.57 a pound, up by about 4 cents a pound cal stores and restaurants. Frozen tuna is purchased by bigger buyers who put it into the foodservice supply chain, she notes. Both Fitzpatrick and Tilghman say that domestic Celebrating albacore, bigeye Photo courtesy of Oregon Albacore Commission One positive, says Tilghman, is that plants aren't shipping much new inventory, with some plants even turning to other species in the interim. "So we're not building up additional inventory in the United States," he says. over the previous year. "It has been a very good year for value and poundage," says Fitzpatrick about the season, which typically runs from July to October. Tuna bought of the boat mostly stays within the I-5 corridor that runs from Oregon to California, says Fitzpatrick, or goes into lo- Oregon fshermen earned higher prices for their catch in 2013. He predicts that importers will feel "another three to six months of pain" and imported frozen product is making its way into retail as loins that can be hand-cut. "One of our goals is to have [tuna loins] stay domestic," says Fitzpatrick. "We want to get it out of the can and into the hands of cooks, because it's a less expensive seafood that is easy to work with." One way the commission has increased albacore awareness among chefs is by participating in various food events such as Bite of Oregon and Feast Portland. Te commission has also run commercials when the feet is in and has taken the message national by supplying tuna to a participant in the annual Great American Seafood Cook-Of in New Orleans. Hawaii is another domestic source of tuna, producing bigeye, yellowfn, albacore and skipjack. Hawaii's tuna fshery catches primarily bigeye (Tunnus obesus), says John Kaneko, program manager for the Hawaii Seafood Council in Honolulu. Hawaii's longline fshery produced 88.7 percent (13.5 million pounds) of U.S. bigeye tuna landings and 24.6 percent (2.1 million pounds) of domestic yellowfn tuna landings. Te longline fshery also produced 1.5 million pounds of albacore tuna and half a million pounds of skipjack tuna in 2012. Nearly all of the longline catch is sold through the Quote Numquisc iliasperum quiant. Riantur estotam, solendisque nesenda ndebition non endem laborunt fuga. Itate que voluptus eos. — name, title, company 26 SeaFood Business January 2014 Visit us online at www.seafoodbusiness.com