Spanish tuna tradition, a Japanese gourmet delight

Spanish fishermen in the Strait of Gibraltar have kept alive a 3,000-year-old netting tradition that brings in tuna so tasty, buyers come for it all the way from Japan. The fishermen wait to trap their prey in an “almadraba”, a system of nets stretched across the water off a beach in Zahara de los Atunes, on the southern tip of Spain. The tiny resort is named after the tuna that have been caught here in this stretch of water since the Phoenicians ruled the Mediterranean from around 1200 BC. The tradition survives, despite the threat from overfishing by industrial trawlers. Fishermen lay the almadraba to create a submarine system of chambers that trap the biggest of the migrant fish.

We bleed the tuna to stop them suffering and to get the best quality possible. If the fish feel fear, they give off a substance that spoils the flesh.

Rafael Marquez, a 45-year-old almadraba fisherman

This fish bloodbath has prompted shock and criticism, but the Almadraba Producers’ and Fishermen’s Organisation insists the tradition respects the environment. The Spanish biologists’ and naturalists’ association Hombre y Territorio says it considers the almadraba a form of “sustainable fishing”. In the 1980s more than 90 percent of the tuna caught by the three fishing companies in the organisation was sold in Japan. But now young local companies are selling a bigger share - some 30 percent of the catch - in Spain itself. An international plan launched in 2006 has saved the bluefin tuna from overfishing for the time being and stocks have recovered, she said. That led countries to raise quotas for fishing in the Mediterranean and Atlantic this year for the first time since 2007, to about 16,000 tonnes - of which 700 tonnes are for the almadrabas.

We bleed the tuna to stop them suffering and to get the best quality possible.

Rafael Marquez

Science Tuna fishing