Seafood Process Worker

A seafood process worker performs manual and semi-automated tasks in fish and shellfish processing facilities, handling raw and cooked seafood through cleaning, filleting, portioning, and packaging stages. They operate within strict food safety and hygiene protocols mandated by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) and state health authorities, working in cold-storage environments on production lines or at workbenches.

Receive and inspect incoming seafood deliveries for quality, freshness, and compliance with specifications. Clean and gut fish using hand tools such as filleting knives and scissors, removing scales, fins, and viscera. Operate filleting machines or perform hand-filleting to separate flesh from bone and skin. Portion seafood into specified weights and sizes using mechanical scales and calibrated cutting equipment. Pack processed seafood into containers, trays, or bags and apply date and batch labels. Freeze or ice seafood products using industrial freezers or ice-packing methods to maintain product integrity. Sort and grade seafood by size, quality, and species to meet customer or production specifications. Sanitise workbenches, cutting boards, knives, and equipment using approved food-grade cleaning agents.

The standard entry pathway requires a Certificate I or compulsory secondary education (ABS skill level 5). Specific qualification requirements vary by employer and state. Some employers may accept equivalent experience. Check yourcareer.gov.au for available courses and dewr.gov.au/skills-reform/free-tafe for subsidised training options.

The work is physically demanding and repetitive: you'll spend hours filleting or portioning seafood in freezing cold rooms, which takes a real toll on your hands, wrists, and joints. Pay is modest and unlikely to rise much without moving into supervisory roles. Automation is gradually replacing hand-filleting in larger facilities, so job security isn't guaranteed long-term.

Practically speaking, jobs are in port towns and regional coastal hubs rather than major cities.

Published for ANZSCO unit group 8313, the wider group this job sits in, not for this job on its own.

This is the median for full-time employees who are not managers and are paid at the adult rate, before tax and salary sacrifice. It is a guide to what the work pays, not a wage rate.

Source: ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.

• Adaptability and Flexibilitycore
• Administer ingredients in food productioncore
• Attention to Detailcore
• Basic Arithmetic and Numerical Accuracycore
• Clean food and beverage machinerycore
• Incident Reportingcore
• Inventory Trackingcore
• Multitaskingcore
• Policy and Procedure Adherencecore
• Quality Assurance and Checkingcore
• Regulatory and Legislative Awarenesscore
• Risk Identificationcore
• Stock Counting and Stocktakecore
• Team Collaborationcore
• Time Management and Prioritisationcore
• Act reliably
• Adhere to organisational guidelines
• Carry out checks of production plant equipment
• Continuous Learning and Upskilling
• Goods Receipt Processing
• Process Improvement Identification
• Stock Reconciliation
• Verbal Communication
• Workload Self-Management

• ABS OSCA 2024, occupation definition and task statements
• ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.
• ABS, 2021 Census of Population and Housing based on usual place of residence (Custom Report). OSCA Experimental Estimates.

Role data is drawn from official Australian Government sources, and each figure names where it comes from. Where a role is not in the ABS classification, the page shows no government figures for it. Data may not reflect every local variation.

Where our numbers come from.

What Seafood Process Worker move into, from ten years of tax records.

Last updated: 30 October 2026