The fishing industry produces a vast amount of food processing residue. One way to reduce the amount of residue is to extract its desirable components. In the present study, we investigated the efficiency of high-pressure pre-treatment to increase the recovery rate of amino acids from the waste of lizardfish heads. Processing at a pressure of 100 MPa and temperature of 50-70℃ significantly increased the total amount of amino acids in the extracts compared with processing at atmospheric pressure. Extraction methods using pressurized pre-treatment are effective ways to extract desirable components from the waste of lizardfish heads.