In this short video, I’ve put together the steps I take on my boat to look after a snapper I want to take home to eat. My aim is to minimise the stress I place on the fish, both for the sake of the fish but also so that the meat quality is maximised.

Getting the fish in quickly and killing it quickly are very important. I also bleed snapper I plan to eat (AFTER spiking/stunning them), and in the video I show you how and where I do this. My boat is a Whittley Sea Legend 6.5m, which have a superb kill well below the cockpit floor. This is where I make an ice slurry to chill the fish quickly. But a large esky/cooler works just as well.

While the gutting of the fish is probably not so critical for the fish (it is of course by this stage dead) I will often scale and gut the fish on the boat to avoid the mess at home, so this is included in the video. Being a veterinarian, I can’t help but comment on some of the internal organs of the fish, and also take a quick look in its stomach!

To view the video, click on the snapper image above.

I hope you enjoy this video.