About 60-70% of swordfish caught by Japanese and Australian longliners in the AFZ are landed dead (Ward and Elscot, 2000, BRS report). The effect on flesh quality of landing dead swordfish is almost unknown but processors state that they anticipate that there is some impact and would like some method of identifying these fish in the catch.

Increased competition from other swordfish fisheries and a reduction in local catches will require Australia to produce the best quality possible. A reduction in the amount of second grade fish currently being produced and shipped will also help improve returns. A manual detailing best practice is required by the fishery to ensure that the number of lower grade fish being produced is limited. The information required to compile this manual is not available from the literature. Specific experiments need to be conducted at sea to identify the best handling and processing conditions that can be carried out onboard the capture vessels.

Using a wholesale price for swordfish of $15/kg and the cost of packing and shipment as an extra $4.50/kg, the loss to the industry of rejection of exported fish infested with Kudoa could be more than $2,000,000. Even at lower levels of infestation this is a significant amount of cost to processors and the savings should more than cover the cost of a piece of equipment that can identify the presence of parasites. Development of a minimally or non-invasive method of detecting parasites will improve profitability due to infested fish being screened out of shipments. The Principal Investigator has access to several types of equipment that show promise but their suitability needs to tested rigorously under a range of operating conditions such as on board a vessel or in factory, different levels of infestation and storage time of fish. Once identified, these fish can then be pooled for alternate uses such as production of fish mince or other seafood component foods. This will result in an improvement in the reputation of Australian fish as a more reliable product, reduce wastage at either end of the chain and increase returns for the whole catch.