San Diego: From Tuna Capital to Today’s Local Fleet
Posted on August 24, 2026 by Local Fish
For today’s local seafood aficionado it may be hard to believe that San Diego was once known as the “Tuna Capital of the World.” In the 1940s tuna was one of San Diego’s biggest industries. It is estimated that a whopping 95% of US canned tuna was processed right here in San Diego.
Massive boats would bring in tons of fish that would be processed right here near the waterfront. Fishing also left a mark on San Diego far beyond the docks. Generations of immigrant families built their lives around the industry, including Japanese, Portuguese and Italian fishermen who became an important part of San Diego’s early fishing community. Portuguese fishing families became closely associated with Point Loma, while Italian fishermen were part of the community that grew around what we now know as Little Italy. The boats and canneries may be mostly gone, but their influence is still visible in neighborhoods throughout the city.
Over time the industry changed as operations moved overseas, dolphin protections transformed tuna fishing, costs were rising at home, and foreign competition won out over the local industry. Fishing didn’t disappear however; it was simply transformed.
The large-scale operations that once dominated the industry have been replaced by a vibrant and diverse community of small-boat fishermen bringing gorgeous and dynamic seafood to market.
Instead of an endless parade of giant tuna we now see a wide range of delicious local specialties caught in all kinds of ways. From our delicious and abundant local Rock Crab, to Rockfish, Sheephead, Uni, Halibut, Sanddabs and more. Tuna is of course still targeted when it’s swimming through, but it’s nowhere near the scale it was in the 1940s.
These days, the diversity of our local fishing community is part of what makes it so unique. Instead of a single industry dominated by one species, we have a wide range of fishermen targeting all different types of fish. What we see coming across the dock changes with the season, the weather and simply what happens to be swimming by on any given day.
The way that fish reaches San Diegans has changed too. Instead of heading from massive boats into waterfront canneries, much of today’s local catch stays remarkably close to home. Fishermen sell directly to the public, work with local seafood markets and supply restaurants around the county. At places like the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market, you can even buy seafood directly from the people who caught it.
That smaller scale has created a different relationship between San Diego and its fishing fleet. Buying local fish today can mean knowing what boat it came from, where it was caught and sometimes even meeting the person who caught it. It’s a very different industry from the one that earned San Diego its “Tuna Capital” nickname, but in some ways it has brought us closer to the people actually doing the fishing.
