Some interesting comments here. If you read some of the articles on sustainability of the tuna on tunaseinerscom it seems that albacore tuna in the Atlantic HAS been over fished, and that there is therefore a move of more fishing vessels to the Pacific. The question of morality in going fishing may well be increasingly coming into play. What do you guys think?
I don't know enough about it. My tuna fishing days are long since over. Check out the stories on tuna flying by Francis Moggy Meyrick there on tunaseiners website. There is a link on the front page where it says "Tuna helicopters". BTW I was just reading about a fatal accident in Ponopeh in 2007 (Tropic helicopters) and another just recently off PNG, on bladeslappers.com
Does anybody have a database or know of a database listing tuna helicopter accidents? I have tried the NTSB, but I got lost in the maze.
Also, I see that acidic comment from Big Eye Vet quoted above was on bladeslappers.com but it got a different response there than it did here.
Is he right? I wonder if we had better equipment and maintenance back in the 80's and 90' s than the guys are getting today? Same machines, just more worn out? And that whole business with the Hansen C20 engines being swopped out for C18 engines, what was all that about? Cost saving? What are they, military surplus or something? Can you still get them, or are they long since used up? Strange, strange business, this tuna flying today?
