I'm sharing morning scenes at the Gensan fishport where the tuna bounty is unloaded and hauled, weighed, classified, and sold. Gensan is considered to be the Tuna Capital of the Philippines - processing tons of tuna daily, from yellowfin to skipjacks.



This is definitely big business here. With a world class fish port (officially called General Santos Fishport Complex) capable of handling hundreds of boats daily, tons of tuna changes hands here. Some go straight to export, other to the tuna processing plants and canneries. Gensan has 7 of the 10 canneries in the country, generating thousands of jobs.


Of the variety of catch that reaches the fish port, more than 50% are tuna species. An adult yellowfin tuna can easily weigh 30-50 kg. All around the fish port you'll see men carrying these huge tuna.


Queue at the weighing station. Each tuna is weighed before it can be classified. These guys have been standing there for quite some time. Just imagine how heavy the load they are carrying.


From the fishing boats, the tuna is brought to weighing stations. Usually, every boat owner has his/her own weighing station.


These are the folks who make it happen. They are away for weeks and go to fishing groups as far as the borders of Indonesia and Palau. Before they leave they usually borrow money from the financier/boat owner and leave it with their families. If they get lucky they'll have sufficient haul to cover their debts when they get back. If not, they'll try again on the next fishing expedition. According to some fishermen, its getting difficult to catch tuna and they have to get farther out. Some have even got caught illegally fishing in Indonesian fishing grounds.


Close to 50 boats arrive daily to unload their catch weighing several tons. The best of the catch of course goes to the export market, while the local market gets the class C.


Meat is trimmed from the gills and are sold in the local market. There was a time when tuna tail, "panga" (jaw), and innards are sold very cheap or just given way as freebies.Nowadays everything is maximized for profit.

Check out this flickr album for more photos.