Fishermen’s grading results for this season have been the best yet: thanks to all those who have made changes to their handling practices to help improve our lobster quality.  There is still room for improvement, and one of the issues we still occasionally see is over-filled baskets.

There may be some advantage in just filling a basket, so that the lobsters find it hard to kick legs off, but a few fishermen are still jamming in way too much product.  Any good work done by washing down cakka boxes, carefully handling lobsters and meshing baskets can be quickly undone by over packing baskets.  The lobsters struggle to get adequate oxygen in your tanks and water on our trucks and, if they have to be held over, they can really suffer.  Lobsters that are jammed in sideways or even upside down, with no room to move or adjust, seem to fare poorly and can eventually die.

So please don’t overfill your baskets. As a guide, we recommend it’s best to come up within an inch of the lid, but no more.

Example of a very over-packed basket

If you would like any assistance optimising storage and transport conditions contact GFC Continuous Improvement Manager, Brad Armstrong (0437 513 837)  or GFC Research and Development Officer, Joel Durell (0407 135 712).