A B S T R A C T Marine fish processing byproducts were considered as potential good protein resource for producing bioactive peptides by enzymatic hydrolysis. In this study, hydrolysates with high ferrous binding ability were prepared by enzymatic hydrolysis from mackerel (Trachurus japonicus) processing byproducts. In order to get hydrolysates of high ferrous binding ability and degree of hydrolysis, the enzymatic hydrolysis conditions were optimized, including proteases type, hydrolysis time, temperature, pH and enzyme to substrate ratio. The results showed that the hydrolysate by alcalase had the highest ferrous binding ability and degree of hydrolysis, reaching to 9.8 and 49.0%, respectively. The best hydrolysis conditions of alcalase were optimized using response surface methodology to be: pH 9.0, temperature of 50°C, enzyme substrate ratio of 160 mg/100 mL, hydrolysis time of 100 min. The ferrous binding ability and degree of hydrolysis were reached to 48.0 and 45.4%, respectively, at these optimized hydrolysis conditions.