Changes in the Skin Flora of Cod After Washing and Icing

SUMMARY: Bacterial counts done on the skin of North Sea cod show that while washing with running sea water greatly reduced the numbers on newly caught fish, contact with ice from a trawler's ice bunker resulted in an immediate large increase on the washed fish. Washing did not materially alter the percentage representation of the various genera present, but icing with trawler bunker ice could cause major alterations and often added types of bacteria similar to those present on newly caught fish, indicating contamination of the ice on board the trawler.