ROGER MORONEY
The official name is northern blue tuna, or the thunnus orien talis to be very exact, but to the skippers of the big deep sea boats working out of Napier they are nothing short of blue gold.
Which explained the beaming smiles dockside and at Hawke's Bay Seafoods' Pandora processing and packing plant, when the first of the riches from the deep arrived off the vessel Danielle yesterday.
The 300kg bluefin, caught about 130 nautical miles off Napier on Monday, could be worth as much as $75,000 when it hits the Tjukiji fish market in Tokyo today.
Within an hour of being landed, it was gutted, gilled and packed with ice within a special wooden container ready for the first available freight flight to Japan.
``We have had five or six pretty poor years but the exchange rates at the moment are finally really good for us,' Hawke's Bay Seafoods general manager Nino D'Esposito said.
The rates today are similar to those in 2002 when a peak condition 325kg bluefin tuna processed by the company fetched $76,000.
There was also good export news for another targeted export tuna - the big-eye.
Mr D'Esposito said last year the fish were attracting $36 a kg. This year the return is looking closer to $60.
The company has three deepsea boats hunting for bluefin, with another boat set to arrive soon.
During the 10-day expeditions, the boats may only pick up one or two bluefin a day ``if we're lucky'.
But from May onwards, the southern tuna comes into the picture and hauls of 20 to 30 a day are not uncommon.
The signs are there that the swordfish season will also be a good one, meaning plenty of work for the local processing industry and a boost for the region's export earnings.
Lucrative blue gold pulled from deep sea
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