Keeping lobsters alive on the way home

[notabob]

A cooler with re-freezable ice packs has always worked great for me. Keeps them alive for many hours on end. Just be sure you got enough icepacks for the size of the cooler. Never used seaweed, but can't hurt. _Definitely avoid_ loose ice and fresh water, though. Sure way to kill your catch before its time.

-Roman.

 

[keelhaul123]

What methods have you all found work best keeping bugs kicking until you get home? We've been using icebags or packs in small coolers, but that doesn't seem to work very well.

Guessing that a few possibilities for the high mortality:
1. Weight of the ones on top crush the ones below
2. Not cold enough -- I've noticed that refreezable cold packs don't work nearly as well as bags of ice.
3. Not enough moisture in the air -- even though we do put seaweed in the cooler.

We did several times fill the cooler with ocean water, which kept them all alive, even though we've heard that this is not recommended because oxygen gets used up quickly without agitation. The other possibility is to stop using the Igloo style coolers and stick with the big rectangular coolers to provide more space.

Thoughts? Recommendations?

Heck..I just toss them in a cooler with some ice packs (no ice as the melting freshwater kills them), then put them in the fridge when I get home. Mind you, I store them in a plastic bag in the fridge. Usually they stay alive for a day or so...plenty of time to cook them, and EAT "em! Those little bastids are tougher than you think.

 

[keelhaul123]

Heck..I just toss them in a cooler with some ice packs (no ice as the melting freshwater kills them), then put them in the fridge when I get home. Mind you, I store them in a plastic bag in the fridge. Usually they stay alive for a day or so...plenty of time to cook them, and EAT "em! Those little bastids are tougher than you think.

P.S. The seaweed in the catch bag helps to keep them from attacking each other before you get them to shore. So unless you don't mind a few nips and bites on your bugs...put some kelp in the bag with them!

 

[localdivah]

Tested it out on a good haul of 11 bugs this morning/afternoon and they all survived.

I think the key is moist air (I've been using seaweed layered throughout) and cold, but not direct cold. Once, when I used direct ice, I noticed that the meat when steamed was pulpy -- a fisheries dept whitepaper on transporting lobsters commercially mentioned that this can happen due to freezing of the flesh.

Somebody mentioned keeping them in the crisper. Don't think this would be recommended, since the crisper has the lowest humidity in the entire fridge, while everything I've read suggests that lobsters need high humidity.

The only question for me now is whether you would want to use sea water to keep them in during multiple dives or before getting them home...

 

[Scuba65]

We just use ice in a big cooler, we've had no problems keeping them alive that way...we just dump about 4 bags or so of ice in the cooler an that's it. We've kept them alive in that manner for 6 -8 hrs. with no problems. then get home and put them in fridge til they get cooked. sometimes til the next day.

 

[anth]

I'm an undergraduate intern on a lobster ecology project, and as such my work involves a great deal of transporting juvenile lobsters for hours, by vehicle as well as boat. If flowing seawater is unavailable, the key is to keep the lobsters moist and cool. Submerging the bugs in a static cooler or bucket of water will kill them over time, as they will effectively suffocate once they deplete the dissolved oxygen. We use a cooler with a few ice packs, filled with a few bedsheets soaked in seawater, burying the lobsters in the sheets. As someone mentioned, keeping them in a mesh bag with macroalgae is effective at preventing them from beating up on each other. This method has worked for us for 12+ hours.

-Anthony

 

[cjmiller]

Wet paper towels over their heads works well even in the crisper; keeps them alive for days if needed. Very cold but not freezing; they are pretty dormant and get enough O2 and keep moist.

 

[ScubaDobe]

As a daughter of a Maine lobsterman, I have never seen this method fail over 6 plus hours of transport (even in August).

Place bags of ice or ice packs in the bottom of your cooler. I prefer to double bag the ice so that the melting freshwater doesn't smother the bugs.

Next place your average size daily newspaper over the ice. Seaweed can replace the newspaper if it is more readily available.

Place your bugs on top of your newspaper (or seaweed).

Close lid.

I've only lost a couple bugs in my years of transporting them and they were extremely soft shedders.

Over long distances it is great if you have a cooler with a drain plug so you can drain the water as the ice melts every drink/bathroom break.

I hope this helps.

 

[localdivah]

Anthony & ScubaDobe -- thanks for the scientific/experience-based tips!

I learned yesterday that even the best planning and techniques fail if your buddy dumps 6 lobsters into the cooler without ice when you're not looking.

 

[jwinslow68]

Whats always worked for me is......using a bunch of 20oz soda bottles with water in them and freezing them, which keeps the fresh water off them and still stays cold. Put a bunch of them in the bottom of your cooler and when you put your bugs in there also throw in some seaweed. Id read somewhere that that helps them stay alive. Ive used this method and have kept mine alive for up to a day and a half. Just have to make sure they stay real cold.
Hope that helps.