Tuna Party attendees: Richard Gonder, Roger Bellcoff, Jon, Malia Ireland, Leah Gonder, Loyal Holmes and Candy Eros.

We are just at the end of another fantastic albacore season off the Washington coast. More and more people are acquiring a taste for this delicious home-canned product.

Nothing against commercial brands, but freshly caught Washington canned albacore tuna, would win every time in a taste-test competition. Properly caught, bled and iced albacore caught off our coast is the best. These fish usually weigh between 8 and 30 pounds, although a big one may top 40 pounds. They are super healthy, safe, low-mercury and high in omega-3 oil. It is the only tuna species that can marketed as “white meat tuna” in the United States.

North Pacific albacore migrate to two regions of the Northeast Pacific. One destination is off the north part of Baja California, where they make several dives to depths exceeding 660 feet during the day and stay near the surface at night. Off the coast of Washington and Oregon, the tuna stay on the surface almost the entire day. Tuna never really rest.

Recreational tuna fishing has grown tremendously out of Ilwaco, where a small fleet operates every year and is expanding.

For those not physically able to fish for themselves, local tuna are available at fish markets.

A recent “tuna party” in Ocean Park started at 8 a.m. with 200 pounds of tuna “in the round.” Capt. Loyal Holmes started the butchering process in the spacious garage of Dick and Leah Gonder. The remainder of the group started showing up about 9 a.m., these being Roger Bellcoff from Battleground, Candy Eros of Ocean Park, and Malia Ireland and Jon of the Tri-cities.

The group had six pressure cookers. Dick was in charge of keeping the cookers regulated. The cooking was done at 10 pounds pressure and batches were done in 90 minutes.

There was a bar setup and Leah — the perfect hostess — kept the “feed bin” stocked with pizza, wine, beer, veggies, smoked salmon and other delights.

As I sat in my folding chair, observing, with a slice of hot pizza and a cold adult beverage, the team operated very efficiently — washing the tuna, packing it in the jars, loading and unloading pressure cookers, checking for correct jar top sealing and stacking cases.

The entire project took about eight hours, as friends and neighbors visited and reviewed progress.

Each of the participants ended up with 70 half-pint jars of albacore.

Massive amounts of Bud Lite beer was consumed as a morale booster and to keep energy flowing.

Ron Malast can be reached at 665-3573 or raiders7777@centurylink.net.