Hi there
Chilean sea bass is a better marketing name for Patagonian toothfish
(Dissostichus eleginoides).
I'm not aware of any shore based operation for processing fresh toothfish or
any ice based vessel capturing it, as it is captured deep in the southern
oceans (45 to 60S). Therefore is as you correctly assumed is processed and
frozen on board, mostly as H&G, fillet and sometimes loins.
It mostly caught by longlining, but trawling is also being used
(particularly in South Australia as target specie and occasionally in
Argentina and Chile as bycatch). The catch size for the net is very
difficult to answer as depends on the different size and type of vessels
(you don't wont t go down there with nothing small I assure you), but as
well if you are targeting the specie.
The processing speed would also depend from a series of factors,
particularly the freezing capacity and machinery used, as well the size
variation which has effect as well on the potential to use machinery
(Another important variable in those latitudes is the bad weather and sea
condition). The present fleet is diverse and divided roughly in the legal
and illegal ones, so I would be very hard to generalize on the processing on
board.
In regards the difference in between trawl and longline fish from the
quality perspective, there are also several differences, but in a nutshell,
longlined fish tends to be of a higher quality because is a "passive" method
(i.e. the fish goes to the gear) therefore it not so stressed from capture,
the net and the share number of fish inside it produce a lot physical damage
during hauling, particularly if is a mixed bag, (even more so if there is
squid on the bag, that bites anything around it). Another point with
longlined tootfish is that as the specie is normally caught quite deep
(600m+), the hauling process is more slow and gentle in terms of
decompression therefore the fish come in better shape.
Any search on the internet would lead you to several sites related to the
environmental concerns around the tootfish fishery and the names of the boat
involved in legal and sustainable captures of the species, by knowing the
names of the vessels and or companies you product come from, you could
easily trace back the technical data of the processing on board.
hopefully this helps
kind regards
Francisco Blaha
Seafood/Fisheries R+D
http://www.franciscoblaha.com/about.html
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-seafood@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-seafood@ucdavis.edu]On Behalf
Of Mark Neely
Sent: Friday, 20 September 2002 3:33 a.m.
To: seafood@ucdavis.edu
Subject: Chilean Sea Bass questions
Dear Listserve Members,
I am interested in methods of fishing for Chilean Sea Bass.
For trawl caught, are the fish processed at sea or are they brought to
shore based plants? If shore based, how far away (time) are the fishing
grounds? Are the fish kept in RSW tanks?
What is a typical catch size for a net? How long does it take to process
(head and gut) a typical full net? Is it all done by hand or is machinery
involved?
What quality differences are there for Trawl caught versus Long liner
caught?
Any other general info or references would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Mark Neely
Surefish
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