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Show American Tuna Harvest Grows Bluefin, Yellowfin Skipjack Plentiful RAPID EXPANSION of the worldwide world-wide tuna fish industry is proof that the big ones don't all get away. In the United States canned tuna has skyrocketed from 91 million pounds 10 years ago to last year's record pack of 175 million pounds. Tuna fleets operating along the west coast of North America and south to the Galapagos Islands west of Ecuador brought in an estimated 400 million pounds of fresh tuna in 1950. Interest in the development of tuna fisheries from a summer-time sport to an important industry is being shown by packers along the Atlantic coast. The itinerant tunas the bluefin, yellowfin, skipjack and the more elusive aristocrat of this group of the mackerel family, the albacore today are a valuable world food resource. Roaming over tremendous tremen-dous distances and migrating across oceans, the tunas move in near the shores of every continent in their quest for food. Mainstay of the United States west coast industry and the vast Japanese fisheries, now supplying some duty-free fresh and frozen tuna to the Western canneries, Is the yellowfin. It is a smaller species than the big sporty bluefin of tournament fame. Cannaries prefer tuna between IVi and 150 pounds, the average being 30 to 50 pounds. The albacore, with the whitest and least gamy of all tuna meat, comes mainly from the California-Oregon coast. Recently Re-cently it has ranged as far north as British Columbia and Alaska. Its migrations are less predictable than the yellowfin. It has been known to disappear for 12 years at a time. The reason is a mystery. |