TUNA FISH SPOTTING

Secrets, Facts and Myths

The use of helicopters for fishing support goes back to the early days of the helicopter themselves.  As soon as small helicopters as the Bell 47 and the Hughes 269 were available in the commercial market, they were seen as an excellent tool to improve the efficiency of fishing boats, reducing trip lengths and therefore increasing the profitability of this activity.

Today tuna fishing is mainly done by means of big ‘seiners’ with a capacity that varies from 800 to 2,000 tons of fish.  Standard boat dimensions are 224’ long, 42’ beam and 18’ draft.  These boats speeds up to 18 knots (cruise 15 knots) and with a fuel capacity of 250,000 gallons, they have a range of 3,600 nautical miles.    They have a crew of 21 to 24, including helicopter pilot and engineer.

On the helicopter side, tuna fleet is mainly serviced by Hughes 500, Bell 206 Rangers, Robinson R-22 and the old Bell 47.  These aircraft are all flown with inflatable float landing gear (fixed).