For a Quality Product
One Hand, One Lobster
by Laurie Schreiber
Improved handling practices are being promoted in the lobster industry. Some lobstermen don’t see how the extra effort will improve their bottom line. Scientists argue poor handling leads to shrinkage dealers have to anticipate and factor into the price they pay. Roughly handled undersize lobster may not survive to legal size. ©Joel Woods photo
ROCKPORT—“One hand, one lobster” was the advice offered by Jean Lavallee, a veterinarian with the Aquatic Science & Health Services on Prince Edward Island, during the Maine Lobstermen Association’s annual meeting at the recent Maine Fishermen’s Forum.
Lavallee was invited to offer tips on how to keep lobster quality at its highest level, now that the subject is at the top of everyone’s minds, especially given the changing ocean environment. Lavallee has worked with the lobster industry since 1995, his current work is focusing on developing best practices to maintain lobster quality, as well as outreach and project management related to lobster health.
Lobster quality is directly related to several factors, including diet, water temperature, and other ecosystem factors. However, factors related to handling also impact quality, as lobsters are passed along the chain-of-custody. Handling practices cause changes in the lobster’s physiological state and therefore stresses the animal, Lavallee said.
“Every time someone touches the lobster, you take quality out,” he said.
Low oxygen in standing water is one source of stress.
Jean Lavallee, a veterinarian with the Aquatic Science & Health Services on Prince Edward Island. Lavallee has worked with the lobster industry since 1995, his current work is focusing on developing best practices to maintain lobster quality, as well as outreach and project management related to lobster health. Laurie Schreiber photo
“It takes about 15 minutes for oxygen to disappear from stagnant water on the boat,” as opposed to circulating water, he said.
Lobsters are stressed every time the temperature changes. “It’s a roller coaster,” he said. Lobsters experience temperature changes from the ocean to the boat, to the truck and finally to the plant. “Every time the temperature changes, the lobsters use energy to match the temperature.”
Toxicity in tank water, pesticide runoff in the ocean, and exposure to rain are other sources of stress.
“If it’s raining, you can’t control that, but you can put a tarp over your tank or crate,” he said.
Fresh water ice is also bad, he said.
“Even if you put freshwater ice on top of the crates, it will melt and make it to the lobster,” he said. “The lobster on the bottom will be more exposed, and that’s bad.”
The reason it’s bad is because when lobster come out of the water, they compensate by trapping trap water in their gill chambers. Gill chambers trap water that allows lobsters to survive when exposed to air. If there’s water dripping onto lobsters, they’ll think they’re going back into the sea, and they’ll release the water from their gill chambers. Their gills will dry out and they’ll die much more quickly, said Lavallee.
Studies show that lobsters that feed on fresh mackerel bait in the trap are seven times more likely to arrive weak at the plant, compared with lobsters that feed on any other type of bait.
Lobsters that are tossed, as opposed to placing it, are three times more likely to arrive weak at the plant.
And lobsters landed on rainy days are six times more likely to arrive weak.
“You can’t control if it’s raining, but you can put a lid or tarp over the tank,” Lavallee said.
Dragging the trap up on the washboard, rather than lifting it and setting it down, breaks off the lobster’s little legs that happen to be protruding through the wire panel.
“That’s money out of your pocket,” he said.
So can fishermen do a better job of maintaining quality on their boats?
“I think it’s absolutely possible,” he said. Fishing for softer product means being more careful. And sticking to the “one hand, one lobster” goes a long way.
“I don’t care if your hand is as big as a shovel and you can take 14 lobsters in one hand,” he said. “Don’t do that. It’s always when you have more than one lobster in your hand that you’ll drop a lobster.”
All these stressors—on the boat, at the wharf, on the truck, and at the plant—is “death by a thousand cuts,” he said. “It all adds up.”
Whereas humans can relieve their own stress in a matter of minutes, it takes weeks to recover the quality lost in a lobster when it’s been stressed, he said.
“It’s very difficult to put quality back in,” he said. “Once a lobster loses quality, it’s difficult to get it back in top shape.”
Lobsters sometimes manifest stress by dropping a claw, which they think will lure a predator while they escape; or by cannibalizing each other in cramped conditions, such as a tank.
“At the end of the day, lobsters are animals,” he said. “And whether you believe they feel pain or they don’t, regardless, we have to treat the product with respect.”