◄ Jason Tompkins
holders. This meant that each tuna license holder is only guaranteed one tuna now each season,” says Tompkins. The changes encouraged fishers to take better care of the one tuna they are allowed. “Due to these conservation methods, we have see the West Atlantic Bluefin stocks rebound by over 60%,” he says, “and this January our rod and reel fishery in Atlantic Canada received its Ocean Wise recommendation as a sustainable fishery. “ The name of the company, and its motto are born from this decision. “Our motto One hook, one line, one boat, one tuna represents that we are an artisanal, day boat, rod and reel fishery,” says Tompkins. The Bluefin processed at the plant is caught on one hook, one line and by one boat out of North Lake. One Tuna is committed to maintaining the sustainability of the Bluefin industry on PEI. “Sustainability in our business is everything. Bluefin was a touchy subject back in the mid 2000’s. We saw stocks declining and were worried that we may have fished to hard, to fast,” Tompkins describes. “As a family business, I want my children to be able to learn and take over from me one day. The only way to ensure that is to make sure stock levels and our conservations methods are adhered to and continued.” The Rural Action Centre, an organization that works to promote economic growth, has been a great help along the way and assisted him and his plans for One Tuna. “The Rural Action Centre was instrumental in helping me get started,” he said. “They provided a lot of support, shared their knowledge and connected me with key contacts. In the end, CBDC ended up financing the mortgage on my building.”
In return, One Tuna has created jobs for Islanders and is helping the Bluefin industry on PEI. “Having the opportunity to build our plant here in North Lake, helping Island fishers while developing new international markets for Canadian Bluefin has been tremendously satisfying,” says Tompkins.
One Tuna 6295 Northside Rd, Elmira 902.215.8862 Jason@OneTuna.com www.onetuna.com
F ishing for Bluefin tuna in PEI has a long history. “It is tied very closely to the people living across the Island. Whether in Tignish, Alberton, Naufrage or North Lake, whenever a fish is landed the whole community comes down to see it being unloaded off the boat,” says Jason Tompkins of One Tuna. “This has been the same for the last 40-50 years,” Tompkins has been part of this story for over 20 years. Tompkins started as a tuna technician, and is now the owner of One Tuna, Canada’s only CFIA certified Bluefin tuna processing plant. “We were seeing a trend of global tuna markets getting saturated with fish from around the globe which was lowering prices to PEI fishermen,” he says. “This would allow us to cut and freeze Bluefin during poor market conditions or if we have a fish not desired by the market” Until recently, the tuna fishery on PEI was open or derby style. About fifteen years ago, this was changed because the stock was declining. “Quotas were cut back and divided out evenly amongst the Island license
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SUMMER 2020 www.pei-living.ca
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