Visit to the Laamu Atoll Tuna Fish Factory
As of August 2017, Ocean Dimensions are now diving & snorkelling in the Unesco Biosphere Reserve in the Baa Atoll at Kihaa Maldives – the closest resort to Hanifaru Bay. We hope to see you there!
About 20 minutes by speed boat away from Six Senses Laamu is the Horizon Tuna Fish Factory. The Laamu Atoll has 11 inhabited islands, for 10 of those the main income is in fishing. The Maldives has 3 Tuna Factories were the one in the Laamu Atoll is the biggest, with 535 employees from 5 different countries it is even the biggest in South East Asia. 4000 tons of tuna can be stored here. The temperature in the storage area is -24 degrees. Around the whole facility it is very very clean. Inspectors come for monthly visits to check that all food processing regulations are upheld for the factory to be able to export to Europe. UK supermarkets Sainsbury and Waitrose sell the tuna from this specific factory in the Laamu Atoll. And of course we get our tuna for the staff canteen from there too. The offal from cleaning the tuna does not go to waste, it gets made into fertiliser and is being exported to Sri Lanka and is probably being used on the tea plantations were our tea comes from. And the most important fact is that the fishermen use a method called “pole and line” fishing, meaning one man, one fishing pole, one fish – no nets, no by-catch, no overfishing!
At the moment the demand for tuna is higher then what the fishermen can deliver.
