Sri Lanka > Seafood Processing > Tuna Sorting and Grading
Stock Photographs of Yellowfin Tuna Sorting and Grading
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Sorted Yellowfin Tuna
This photograph fills the frame with sorted Yellowfin Tuna. It works well in both landscape or portrait format. The Yellowfin Tuna (Thunnus albacares) seen here has been unloaded from the long-line catcher ships, and is then put through a series of tests by buyers from around the world, all interested in the freshest and best quality fish for their customers. Contact Me to license any of these images.
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Yellowfin Tuna packed in Ice
A pallet of Yellowfin tuna is covered with a line of ice to preserve its freshness as it waits for processing. Contact Me to license any of these images.
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Sorting and Grading Tuna
In the sorting and grading room at Muthtuwal Harbor fish-docks, everything moves very quickly. The fish are offloaded from the ship and slid along a ramp straight on to the floor of the sorting room. There they are quickly inspected by graders from many countries, each hoping to bid for the highest quality fish. Contact Me to license any of these images.
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Sorting Yellowfin Tuna
The tuna have their tails and fins cut off - no one is interested in this part of the fish. The grader will leave a colored sticker on the fishes that he has chosen, and one of the fish-dock staff will them take them to the weighing area, where they are weighed and the details recorded. Contact Me to license any of these images.
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Grading Yellowfin Tuna
The graders who assess the quality of the tuna fish are very experienced in their jobs. The use a long and sharp tool to take a tiny plug of meat from two locations on each fish - from behind the fin next to the gills, and from the area of the body as it narrows before the tail begins. Contact Me to license any of these images.
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Tuna to the Weigh Bench
Most people in the grading room wear rubber boots, because the floor is awash with water - this is to make it easier for the heavy tuna fish to be slid from one location to another. When caught, the fishermen put a loop of nylon line in the nose of each fish. This is used to winch the fish from the freezer hold, and also for the market porters, wearing red shirts, to pull the fish from the sorting area to the weighing area and then to the shipping trucks. Contact Me to license any of these images.
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Grading Tuna - Expert work
In the background, some dock workers watch proceedings as they wait to slide more tuna into the sorting room. In the foreground two tuna graders are assessing the latest batch of fish. The man in blue, who is the head grader for Taprobane Seafoods, takes a small plug of meat from just in front of the tail of a Yellowfin tuna, to determine the quality and to decide whether or not his company will purchase it. Contact Me to license any of these images.
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Assessing Tuna Quality
The man in blue, who is the head grader for Taprobane Seafoods, examines the small plug of meat that he has just taken from the Yellowfin tuna at his feet. By examining the color and texture, he is able to determine the quality and so decide whether or not his company will purchase it. The man in red waits with a green sticker in his hand. If the fish is approved, he will place the sticker on the fish's head to let other graders know that it has already been reserved. Contact Me to license any of these images.
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Tuna Grading Competition
There is close competiton to secure the best grades of tuna for each company. The bulk of the highest quality fish, known as A++ grade, is flown straight to Japan, where it is resold for the sashimi market. Sashimi, often the first course in a formal Japanese meal, is believed to be the finest dish in Japanese cuisine, so the Japanese are prepared to pay highly for the finest grades of tuna. Contact Me to license any of these images.
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Tuna Grading for Quality
In this photograph we see three graders comparing the quality and texture of the same plug of tuna meat. No one wants a tuna riddled with holes from different plugs cut by different graders, so they will pass the same sample around, and each make their own judgement as to the status of each fish. Contact Me to license any of these images.
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Assessing Tuna Grades
The fish near to the feet of the three tuna graders still need to be assessed, whilst to the left of a scene a small traffic jam of tuna wait patiently (!) to be weighed and shipped away. Contact Me to license any of these images.
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Rechecking Tuna Grades
The expert tuna grader re-checks the quality of the fish at his feet by taking a small plug of meat from an area of the fish next to the tail. Contact Me to license any of these images.
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Assessing Yellowfin Tuna
As new tuna fish are brought into the sorting room and neatly lined up, graders and assessors from all around the world inspect each and every fish to decide its quality, and the company that will purchase or re-sell it. Contact Me to license any of these images.
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Tuna to be Weighed
Once the graders have done their work, and the new owner of the fish decided, the fish-dock staff in their distinctive red shirts will slide the tuna across the slippery floor to the weighing area, where each fish is recorded and documented by the staff in blue shirts. Contact Me to license any of these images.
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Weighing and Recording Tuna
With a colored sticker on the face of each tuna that indicates the purchaser, the next step is for the tuna to be recorded and documented. The fish-dock staff use the nylon loop in the nose of each fish to drag it on to the scales. These details are then entered into the book, and a further sticker is written out for the fish with details of its provenance. Contact Me to license any of these images.
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Checking Tuna Quality
At Taprobane Seafoods (Pvt) Ltd., a modern seafood processing factory at Dankotuwa near Negombo, the quality of each Yellowfin tuna is rechecked as it is off-loaded from the freezer truck and before it starts its journey through the various stages of processing. Contact Me to license any of these images.
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Quality First at TSF
At Taprobane Seafoods (Pvt) Ltd., a modern seafood processing factory at Dankotuwa near Negombo, the quality of each Yellowfin tuna is rechecked and its details entered onto the company records before it starts its journey through the various stages of tuna meat processing. Contact Me to license any of these images.
Map, made by me, of the Purchasing and Processing centres used by Taprobane Seafoods (Pvt) Ltd.
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