Sunday, 17 April 2016

Efficient Transportation Of Live Lobster

By Jeffrey Murphy


Many people find a lobster that is cooked when fresh to be a delicacy. Cooking it when it is alive happens to be one of many ways it is prepared best. They, however, pose a great challenge when it comes to transporting them as they are adapted to cold salty water environments. It is not easy to create a similar environment in your transporting equipment. It therefore takes some planning in order to deliver a live lobster at your home.

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.

In high temperature environments the lobsters use a lot of oxygen. This makes them more susceptible to dying out of deprivation of oxygen. Since they use gills, keeping them moist helps them maintain their breathing. It is possible to maintain a live, hard-shelled lobster, outside water for as long as five days when you handle them properly.

For one to keep lobsters moist at all times, he or she does not have to keep them submerged. They actually survive better during transportation when not placed in water. Having them packed directly in dry ice is dangerous and not advisable. This has serious repercussions when the ice melts. They will swell and eventually burst when in fresh. They will also asphyxiate in dry ice as it has great amounts of carbon dioxide.

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.

For perfect results, it is important to keep lobsters relatively cool prior to them being packed. This helps in acclimatizing them as they go from warm to cold temperatures. Despite the fact that lobsters are more successful in dealing with temperature changes from warm to cold, they are generally not good in dealing with rapid temperature changes.

It is also advised not to feed them for two or three days before shipping them. They use more oxygen and have a high chance of vomiting when transported on full stomach. One should also ensure that he or she packs them closely, though they should not be too tight as their shells might break during transportation.

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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