Tri Marine International says the company is appreciative of the Greenpeace tuna ranking report, which places the company’s Ocean Naturals canned tuna brand as one of the top tuna products in the U.S.

The Washington state-based Tri Marine is slated to be among the participants at next week’s seafood expo in Boston, where the company’s state-of-the-art-cannery in American Samoa, new initiatives and a new canned tuna product will be on display for the world to see.

GREENPEACE & TRI MARINE

In its first-ever ranking report for U.S. canned tuna, Greenpeace announced Monday this week that it found that among the “worst performers” the country’s big three brands — Bumble Bee Food, Chicken of the Sea and StarKist Co. — representing a combined 80% of the US tuna market. (See yesterday’s edition for more details.)

According to Greenpeace, the canned tuna brands Wild Planet, American Tuna and Ocean Naturals received the top scores and were identified as the best choices for US tuna consumers — all offering ocean safe products.

“Each brand has a comprehensive approach to sustainability and sources from operations striving to be fair and socially responsible,” it says.

Responding to Samoa News inquiries, Tri Marine’s chief operating officer Joe Hamby said the Greenpeace analysis based its assessments on catch methods, with the highest rankings given for pole and line, troll and pole, and free school purse seine catches.

In addition, Greenpeace does not support tuna fishing on FADs - or fish aggregating devices - by purse seiners, due to their concerns about potentially related by-catch issues.

“Tri Marine is proud of our investment in sustainability, including our recent announcement to enter into Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) full assessment of  Western and Central Pacific skipjack and yellowfin tuna,” Hamby said yesterday.

“Our ‘Ocean Naturals' brand is distinguished as a free school skipjack tuna product with no additives--just tuna, water, and salt,” he said. “We appreciate being recognized by Greenpeace for the quality of our product and commitment to sustainability.”

Tri Marine’s local operations include the Samoa Tuna Processors (STP) Inc., cannery, which will produce both a private label and its own brand of tuna products at the American Samoa plant.

Tri Marine chief executive officer Renato Curto told The Associated Press last December that the Ocean Naturals brand is a low-cost, high-protein, high-quality can of tuna with no artificial flavors or additives.

“Each can is full of beautiful tuna that consumers can actually trace back to the boat, the location and the date it was caught on their smart phone with technology tied to the unique production code printed on each can of tuna,” Curto said. “We want to change the way people think about canned tuna and showcase the high quality and great taste of our products.”

Tri Marine announced in January this year that its American Samoa-based fleet of ten tuna purse seiners has entered into MSC full assessment, in which a team of independent scientists will assess the sustainability of the company’s catch of free school skipjack and yellowfin tuna in the Western and Central Pacific.

According to Tri Marine, this new MSC certification will include tuna caught in US territorial waters, the waters of several Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) member countries, and the high seas.

SEAFOOD EXPO

As noted, Tri Marine is among the participants in the 2015 Seafood Expo North America and Seafood Processing North America at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center set for  Mar.15-17, where STP —and American Samoa— will be on display.

Tri Marine will share the latest developments at the company, including the opening of a state-of-the-art processing facility in American Samoa, the launch of innovative products serving an array of markets and a series of investments in sustainable fisheries.

“I’m very proud that we’re able to showcase our company’s innovative products and initiatives at this world-class event,” Curto said in a news statement.

It also says that after the inauguration of the $70 million state of the art STP cannery, a facility with the capacity to process a million cans of tuna per day, Tri Marine and its subsidiary The Tuna Store are introducing a new premium Ultra Low Temperature (ULT) yellowfin tuna product at Seafood Expo that is unlike anything on the market today.

The new ULT tuna is caught both by long-line vessels in the Solomon Islands and by hand line in small fisheries in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, said Tri Marine and explained that the long-line tuna is immediately frozen on the vessel and stored at minus 76 degrees Fahrenheit.

(Of interest is that the American Samoa government signed more than two years ago, a sister-city arrangement with North Sulawesi—an area which is the mostly Christian part of Indonesia, whose government is providing funding to help build the new youth center at the former Korea House in Pago Pago.)

The hand-line tuna is caught one fish at a time on small fishing boats by local fishers who then bring their catch back to the Port of Bitung where it is immediately graded, it says, adding that the best sashimi-grade tuna is selected, processed and frozen as ULT loins.

Tri Marine officials told Samoa News that its SolTuna cannery in the Solomon Islands is a partnership with the Solomon Islands government, employing about 2,000 workers. The SolTuna cannery will target domestic market— including South Pacific nations—and the European market, where products from the Solomon Islands have duty free access, while the tuna brand made by STP will target the U.S. market with duty free access.