History
Before 1957, traditional live bait boats were used to capture tuna in the Cantabria Sea.
In 1957, four boats of the ones used traditionally in Bermeo dared to go to the Dakar fishing grounds. One of these boats was skippered by Esteban Uría Uriona ('Galerna'), who started the family tradition which led to the creation of the ALBACORA Group.
At the end of the Fifties, they reached Freetown (coast of West African) and in the 60s, they designed and built the first freezer tuna boats in Europe. At the end of the 60s, the first tuna boats with freezers were proyected and built in Europe. At the same time, the first boat with two decks was built.
In 1974 the Company ALBACORA, S.A. was set up and doing the same decade, the first 1000 T.R.B. tuna boats were built. The use of helicopters for fishing purposes was also introduced.
In the 80s, the tuna fishing boats were already of 1500 G.R.T. equipped with helicopters and the new fishing grounds of the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean were consolidated.
In the 90s, tuna fishing boats reached 2000 G.R.T.(without helicopters, in the fishing grounds of the Atlantic and Indian oceans) and with important technological advances in their electronic equipment which consolidated the fleet in the Pacific accepting quotas.
Today Albacora has the most competitive fleet in the world, fishing on the three oceans Indian, Pacific and Atlantic.