It is essentialtokeepairawayfromthetunameat
whenfreezingyourfillets,andevenif youarekeeping
themin thefridge.Whenpossible,vacuumpackyour
tunaportionsimmediatelyafterfilleting.BEA TUNACHAMPION
AtthispointI’d liketomentiontheTunaChampions
program,whichis a greatinitiativedesignedto teach
more effectiveways tocatch andprepare yourtuna
forfood,orto releasethemin a waythatgivesthem
anexcellentchanceforsurvival.I applaudallwhoare
involvedin this.
A short video taking you through all the steps
mentioned in this article can be viewed on the Tuna
Champions website. Just clickon the ‘Release’ tab at
http://www.tunachampions.com.au/be-a-tuna-championAbove:Afterfirst
killing,bleeding,
pithingandthen
guttingandgilling
this105kgsouthern
bluefintuna,it is
icedin a largeand
sturdyplasticbag(at
least 100 microns
thick)beforeadding
seawaterto create
aniceslurry.The
slurryneedsto
completelycover
thetunaandslosh
around,sothewater
warmedin thetuna’s
stomachcavityis
constantlyreplaced
bytheflowof fresh
iceandchilledwater.These insulated vinyl fish bags are excellent for storing chilled fish. However,
to do the initial chilling effectively they must be big enough to allow the water
and ice to freely slosh in and out of the gut cavity, enabling thorough heat
transfer from the fish into the water. A good system is to initially chill the fish by
immersion in an ice slurry inside a large plastic bag, before being transferred to
an insulated fish bag like this, which can then maintain the chill with ice alone.Theeasiestwayto butchera large
fishis to firstmakea cutrightalong
themiddleof oneside,thencut
offquartersor smallersectionsfor
convenienthandlingwithoutbending
or bruisingtheflesh.Thenturnthe
fishoverandrepeat.78 facebook.com/BlueWatermagazine
From boatside to plate