ATS Transport Systems, Inc, working with EnviroTech Instruments, has developed a new Live Seafood Transport System, to transfer lobster by road.
Working directly with one of the largest lobster suppliers in Nova Scotia, recent trials successfully demonstrated that large cargos of 17,000 to 20,000lbs of live Atlantic lobster can be transported by specialised tractor-trailer units to any point within North America without any degradation of quality and a minimal mortality of approximately 1%, which is less than air shipments.
The wild-caught lobster fishery in provides more than half of the world’s supply for live and processed hard-shell Atlantic lobster. Over 25% of the annual Atlantic lobster catch goes to the live market, shipping cargo to high-end restaurants and retailers throughout North America and the rapidly expanding Asian market. Because of their limited life once out of water, live lobsters are universally shipped as high priority air cargo to ensure freshness on the dinner plate.
However, John Summers of Newfoundland, Canada-based ATS Transport Systems, Inc. realised that finding an alternative to flying the lobsters across North America would simplify logistics and dramatically reduce both the transport costs and carbon footprint.
EnviroTech Instruments has been working with ATS for five years to develop a viable live seafood road-transport system based on an advanced holding-tank design that maximises the lobster biomass per shipment. The project began by providing a way to measure ammonia in the holding-tank water of a small-scale system, and progressed to the development of a specialised circulation control, water quality monitoring and conditioning system. The Atlantic Veterinary College Lobster Science Centre, Prince Edward Island, Canada, also provided its expertise to optimise and then closely monitor the health of lobsters during the design and proving of the full-scale system.
