In many ways, the Panama Canal had changed Panama and its people forever. In 1977, an agreement called the “Carter-Torrijos Agreement” was signed for the complete transfer of the Canal from the US to Panama by the end of the century. The entire Panama Canal, the area supporting the Canal, and remaining US military bases were transferred to Panama by the end of 1999. The Carter-Torrijos Agreement transferred control of “the link” from the North Atlantic Ocean via the Caribbean Sea with the North Pacific Ocean from the Americans to the Panamanians. In October 2006, Panamanians approved an ambitious plan to expand the Canal. The project, which is to begin in 2007 could double the Canal's capacity. The expansion is expected to be completed in 2014-15. To the tuna industry, Panama has been a major transit port since the 1960s. It reached its height in the 1970s when U.S. tuna purse seine vessels moved between the Eastern Tropical Pacific and the Atlantic through the Panama Canal. When U.S. Tuna Purse Seiners started moving to the Western Tropical Pacific in the 1980s, the tuna industry in Panama started to decline. The Panama Canal continues to be a transit route for Venezuelan vessels that go to the Eastern Tropical Pacific to fish and return to Venezuela to unload their fish or purchase cheap fuel.

CASAMAR PANAMA: CASAMAR was the first private enterprise in the Panama Canal Zone which was a U.S. military zone until its turn-over to the Panamanian people in 1999. CASAMAR operated a net repair facility close to the Balboa Port where most of the tuna boats were docked. Mr. Ben Ichiyasu, Casamar’s founder went to Panama in 1958 with the prospect of selling fishing nets to the shrimp, mackerel, and sardine fleets there. There was a large fleet of shrimp boats operating out of Vacamonte where CASAMAR still maintains a netyard until today.