ABSTRACT
The seafood industry consists primarily of many small processing plants, with a number of larger
plants located near industry and population centers. Numerous types of seafood are processed,
such as mollusks (oysters, clams, scallops), crustaceans (crabs and lobsters), saltwater fishes, and
freshwater fishes. As in most processing industries, seafood-processing operations produce
wastewater containing substantial contaminants in soluble, colloidal, and particulate forms. The
degree of the contamination depends on the particular operation; it may be small (e.g., washing
operations), mild (e.g., fish filleting), or heavy (e.g., blood water drained from fish storage tanks).
