Catch quality from vessels landing daily should be of superior freshness to the catch from vessels fishing longer trips. However, many small boats have very little onboard equipment to chill and hold their catch.
While full refrigeration may not always be feasible on many small vessels, by utilising some basic principles of temperature regulation a number of methods can be used to chill and maintain temperature control.
Chilling and storing the catch correctly is critical. Temperature abuse through an absence of chilling will accelerate catch spoilage, although this may not become apparent until the first stage of processing.
