Efficient Transportation Of Live Lobster

By Jeffrey Murphy


A lobster that is cooked when it is still fresh happens to be a delicacy for most people. Among other ways of preparing it, cooking when alive is one of the best ways. It is not a simple task to transport them as they are used to environments of cold salty water. Creating such an environment in your tool of transportation is quite difficult. Delivering a live lobster to your place therefore takes good planning.

To become successful in transporting these creatures, whether from a fish market or from a grocery store, one has to do proper planning. You should ensure a moist as well as cool surrounding for them at all times, when moving them to your place of residence. One of the biggest reasons for many of them making it through the journey is oxygen deprivation. Keeping them cool therefore makes use oxygen in reduced amounts.

When temperatures are high, lobsters tend to use oxygen at a much faster rate. Consequently, this leads to an increase in the probability of the lobsters drying out. Keeping them moist is even more essential, because they use gills and moisture is required for them to breath. With proper handling, a lively, hard-shelled lobster can live out of water very easily for up to 5 days.

By keeping lobsters moist, it does not mean that you keep them submerged. In fact, the lobsters are better off when kept out of water as they are being transported. It is, therefore, advisable that you avoid packing them directly on ice since when the ice melts it may cause problems. By keeping lobsters in fresh water, they will swell up and probably burst. Use of dry ice is also not advisable due to production of huge amounts of carbon dioxide that could lead to asphyxiation of the lobsters.

Unless the shipping equipment has an outfitting to allow for aeration, transporting them in sea water is bad. The lobster uses up dissolved oxygen very fast when there is not enough aeration and thus ends up suffocating. Refrigerated trucks are the most ideal for use since they help maintain the necessary moisture and temperature.

It is necessary for the lobsters to be kept cool for a while before they are packed so as to attain positive outcome. The main reason for doing this is in order to avoid acclimatization, which happens when they are moved from warm temperatures abruptly to cold ones. Being known to possess the ability of handling change of temperatures well, we should also have in mind that they will not do so well if the change is rapid.

They should also not be fed for a period of two to three days before being relocated. When they are transported after a very recent feeding, there is a high chance for them to vomit as well as use up more oxygen than they would have on empty stomach. They should be packed closely, also not tight to avoid breaking their shells.

Boiling them alive immediately is important as they go bad quickly. However, one can preheat then freeze them. This will help them stay fresh for about four days. Take care when preparing preserved ones so as not to overcook and end up hardening them.




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