often suffers from physical damage caused by
the sheer mass of the catch, delays in
processing, and storage in less than ideal
conditions. Factory-scale trawlers and
longliners also harvest huge numbers of fish,
but they do their own processing on board,
and often clean, vacuum-pack, and freeze
their catch within hours. Such fish can be
superior in quality to unfrozen fish caught
locally and recently but handled carelessly.
Harvest in Aquaculture By contrast to the
logistical challenge posed by fishing, consider
the care with which salmon are harvested in
the best aquaculture operations. First, the fish
are starved for seven to ten days to reduce the
levels of bacteria and digestive enzymes in
the gut that may otherwise accelerate
spoilage. The fish are anesthetized in chilled
water saturated with carbon dioxide, then
killed either with a blow to the head or by
bleeding with a cut through the blood vessels