Aquaculture is the world’s fastest-growing food production system (The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2018). This has been recognised by the Western Australian government, with substantial recent investment in the State’s aquaculture industry (Department of Primary Industries, Western Australia, 2021). One aquaculture species targeted for rapid growth throughout Australia, including Western Australia, is Yellowtail Kingfish (YTK).
The novel application of CT scanning in Yellowtail Kingfish is hypothesized to allow the prediction of whole body composition (bone, muscle and fat) as well as the prediction of intramuscular fat within the fillet, which has never been done in Yellowtail Kingfish. This study is designed to determine the optimal machine settings to scan fish and verify composition using chemical methods. We hypothesize that scanning whole YTK carcass will allow accurate estimates of intramuscular fat and lean meat yield, both of which are essential for production and breeding of YTK.
The computed tomography prediction of whole fish fat with three different voltage had a low to moderate correlation with fillet fat % (intramuscular fat %) (Figure 1, R2 = 0.397). The amount of fat in a fish bullet was estimated with a correlation of
R2 = 0.97 by computer tomography, suggested that CT scanning fish bullets is an excellent estimator to predict the fat in that bullet. Moreover, when removing fish viscera and head, there was an improvement in the estimation of fillet fat % (Figures 3), as scanning only fish bullets allows focus on fat deposits within the muscle.