FISHING METHODS

"Clean healthy fish from the crystal clear waters of
Australia's Great Barrier Reef"

Mackay Reef fish are caught using hand lines, taken to the mother ship where they are prepared for use and snap frozen under carefully monitored conditions.  In port the catch is transferred to land based refrigeration rooms in readiness for sale.  Export consignments are usually packed into heavy duty containers and dispatched by either sea or air.

Reef fish are caught from small fishing boats (dories) - about 4 metres long, fishing from a mother boat at anchor in the Great Barrier Reef area.  The fish are stored in cooled holding tanks in the dories and several times a day are returned to the mother boat for processing.  The majority of the reef fish is either gutted and gilled and individually bagged or filleted, packed in cartons of approximately 10 kilograms and then snap frozen on board the mother boat.  These boats stay at sea for 14 - 28 days.

Fresh fish are caught either by boat or estuary fishermen and are placed immediately in an ice solution to maintain a temperature of between 0-4ºC to maintain freshness and quality.

Prawns and crustaceans are caught by trawling in various waters and are graded, packed and snap frozen at sea immediately after catching.

Frozen product is unloaded from the fishing boats directly into Mackay Reef Fish Supplies storage freezer where it is stored in readiness for sale.

Mackay Reef Fish Supplies is an export registered establishment and has EU listing and a HACCP program.

The catching area for our fish and prawns is amongst the cleanest waters available, these waters, together with our high standard of product handling ensures that the product we offer is amongst the highest quality available.