Firm to Buy Tuna Glut on West Coast

Throwing a lifeline to West Coast tuna fishermen, Bumble Bee Seafoods said Wednesday that it will buy most of the remaining glut of albacore and launch a new line of canned tuna labeled American-caught.

The 2,000 tons of tuna that Bumble Bee has agreed to buy won’t fully make up for the glut that began when Asian catchers were unable to sell tuna in their own countries because of the economic crisis.

“Some of the guys who were in bad financial shape will definitely go out of business no matter what happens,” said Wayne Heikkila, manager of the West Coast Fishboat Owners Assn. “Something like this could start being an outlet for some of our fish where we haven’t had it.”

The move comes less than a week after the U.S. Department of Agriculture committed to buying $4 million worth of stockpiled tuna--about 1,250 tons--for food banks and homeless shelters.

Starkist and Chicken of the Sea have been buying limited amounts from the beleaguered 550-boat West Coast tuna fleet, but Bumble Bee is the first brand to agree to the fishermen’s plea for an American-caught label.

The nation’s leading seller of canned albacore tuna, Bumble Bee plans to have cans carrying the red, white and blue “Bumble Bee Limited Catch American Albacore” label on store shelves by early December.