Stressing and exhausting of the fish during catching with active gear such as trawls, purse seines and Danish seines or while it is caught in passive gear such as nets, longlines or hand lines leads to low pH levels in the live fish and rapid rigor mortis after killing.
However, even more serious for the quality of the raw material is physical damage inflicted on the fish by the gear, bagging and removal from the gear. The catch phase also encompasses bleeding and gutting. Trials have shown that damage and reduced quality inflicted on cod and other white fish during the catch and on board handling to a large extent reduces the value for the raw material for the most common uses such as fresh packing, filleting, salting and drying.
Nets are worst when it comes to serious catch damages, according to studies of fishing gear carried out by Nofima Marin. There is a significant potential here for quality improvements depending on how the catch is performed.
