Southern Fishermen Association Inc. Southern FishermenGrand Mal · Grenada
Established 1993 · Grand Mal, St. George's

The fishermen
behind Grenada's
yellowfin

Grand Mal is Grenada's primary landing site for yellowfin tuna. The Southern Fishermen Association has run that beach since 1993.

Request pricing Our story
1993Founded
PrimaryLanding site for yellowfin
HACCPCertified plant
2Export markets · US & Canada
Our Story

Built by the men who fish it

The Southern Fishermen Association was formed in 1993 by the fishers of Grand Mal. A man with one boat had no leverage over what he got paid for his catch. Together they had some. The association was registered as a company in 1996, and in 1999 we opened our own processing floor.

That floor is now a HACCP-certified facility. Every fish that comes over the side is handled by our own people, in our own plant, a few metres from where it landed. None of it passes through a middleman first.

The jetty at Grand Mal with the fleet alongside
Grand Mal — the boats tie up a few metres from the plant door
What We Do

Three jobs, one association

Most fisher groups in Grenada do one of these. We do all three.

Export

Whole fresh yellowfin to the United States and Canada, iced before it leaves the plant. The UK is next.

Processing

Our own HACCP facility at Grand Mal, with ice made on site. A fish is under ice inside the hour.

Representation

When the rules get written, somebody has to be in the room for the boats. That is our job.

Our Catch

What comes across the beach

Local licensed vessels on short trips. The price is paid at the dock.

Tagged yellowfin tuna packed in ice

Yellowfin Tuna

Thunnus albacares

Our principal export. Landed whole and tagged at the dock, then graded and packed for the flight north.

Workers in whites and aprons on the processing floor

A market for the bycatch

Whatever else comes over the side

A tuna boat doesn't only catch tuna. We buy the rest of what comes up, so a slow day on the tuna isn't a wasted trip for the man who fished it.

Tail cuts laid out on the grading board with grades written beside each

Graded, fish by fish

Every tail cut, on the board

The tail cut tells you what the flesh is worth. What it says gets written down against that fish's own number. Nothing ships ungraded.

Our Fishermen

Who works this beach

Every photograph on this site was taken at Grand Mal. Nobody in them is a model.

Nick Bernal at the packing bench with a tablet
Nick Bernal of Grenada Blue at the packing bench — he holds a doctorate in marine biology
The processing floor at Grand Mal mid-shift
Mid-shift on the processing floor
Nick Bernal watching a fish being broken down
Bernal on the floor while a fish is broken down
Styrofoam boxes stacked in the packing room
Boxed and staged — next stop is the airport
Serious Business and John Y 2 tied up at Grand Mal
Serious Business and John Y 2, tied up off the jetty
Crew on a boat at Grand Mal
Crew at Grand Mal
Grand Mal

Grenada's primary landing site

A fish caught this morning is processed before dark.

Everything here sits within a hundred metres of everything else. A boat ties up and the plant door is right there. That proximity is the whole argument: a fish landed at Grand Mal is under ice while a boat landing somewhere else is still waiting its turn to unload.

The jetty at Grand Mal with the fleet alongside
The jetty at Grand Mal, with the fleet alongside
<1 hrBoat to ice
Before darkLanded to boxed
1993Association founded
1999Processing on site
Southern Fishermen Association Inc.

Thirty-three years on the same beach

The members put their names to this mark in 1993 and it has not changed since. It goes on the box that leaves Grand Mal, and it is still on the box when a buyer in Miami opens it.

Est. 1993Grand Mal · GrenadaIncorporated 1996
Partners

Who we work with

One chain runs from the boat at Grand Mal to the buyer in Miami. We are the first link in it.

Contact

Let's talk volume

Buyers on the left. Everyone else on the right.

Buy from us

Tell us what you need and where it is going. We will come back with pricing.

Find us at Grand Mal

Or just come down to the beach — we're there every working morning.

  • AddressGrand Mal, St. George's
    Grenada, W.I.
  • Phone473-435-1693
  • Emailsouthernfa@gmail.com
  • HoursMon–Fri 8:00–16:00
    Sat 8:00–13:00
  • Facebook@Southernfa
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