Barbender- You raise a very valid question, and one that we as a group do our best to educate other about fishing practices and personal take.
The albacore tuna that we take are processed in a variety of ways, the most common being- fresh to eat, smoked, and canned. The majority of canning is done at home by anglers, and most anglers try to put up enough canned tuna to see them through the winter, as well as provide some for their non-fishing friends and relatives.
My personal family usage of average size tuna between fresh for dinners during the summer, vacuum packed for the freezer, smoked, and canned is in the neighborhood of 30 fish for my family. Canning is done at home, and nobody that eats home canned albacore will ever want to buy a can of tuna from the store again- it's that much better. I try to stockpile at least 10-15 cases of pint jars of tuna for the winter.
In this instance of the 2nd photo the 44 fish were split between 4 customers and myself the skipper, for a total of 10 per person, and 4 for me. As noted above, the fish were all bled and properly iced down on the water, and continued to be iced once we reached port. On a charter trip, this is typically the only tuna opportunity that customers will get all year.
In the FIRST picture I showed, this was actually part of the Oregon Tuna Classic tournament our group started. Of the fish caught, the 5 largest are donated to our charity, where they are in turn processed and provided to the local food banks to be distributed to the needy. The rest were split between 4 people, with the bulk going to the 2 people on the boat that were only able to tuna fish once that year.
Over the last 5 years we have generated over $100,000 and 30,000 lbs of tuna to be distributed to the Oregon Food Bank Network.
The picture with the 3 Gradys is from the final leg of the Oregon Tuna Classic this year. Fishing was slow for me (though I did manage a 4th place), and of the 9 fish we caught that day, the biggest 5 were turned over. Of course on that day, there was on 4 fish to be split between the two guys on the boat that only went tuna fishing once that year.
For myself, I am able to produce a lot of fish on multiple trips because I have customers that will only be going once. Prior to the start of the trip we discuss what the groups needs are, and how many fish we will retain based on what their usage of the fish will be. Most customers request that if fishing is good, they would like to take around 5 fish. For those that wish for more, I accomodate, but only to the point where we can properly care for the fish with ice, etc. On the 44 fish trip, we only fished for 2 1/2 hours, then stopped fishing and ran back in. We left the dock at 6:00am and were back at the dock at 11:00am.
For others that are not charters, but fish a LOT, they have gone the route of licensing and permitting to commercial fish. In this way, they are allowed to fish using sport gear, but the entire catch must be sold when back to port.
Sorry for the long reply, but it is an important point and question you posed. Those of us that fish regularly for tuna always want to make sure nobody thinks we are just killing fish to kill fish.
