Abstract: An apparatus and a method for separating fish heads from the remainder of the fish are provided. The apparatus includes a cutting blade, a conveyor movable in a predetermined path past the cutting blade and tapered pins extending through and each having a free end protruding from the conveyor. The pins gradually narrow along the direction towards their free ends. The free end of each pin passes through the eyes of a fish to thereby fix the position of the fish relative to the cutting blade. The feature of tapering determines how far along the length of the pin the fish will be impaled; a smaller fish with relatively smaller eyes will be carried on the pin at a relatively higher level above the conveyor than a larger fish. Such a variation of the positioning of the fish relative to the size of the fish promotes considerable conservation of the food quality portions of the fish body as wastage is more exactly limited to the discarding of the head.