Animal husbandry – Aquatic animal culturing – Handling and transportation
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-12
2001-05-29
Price, Thomas (Department: 3643)
Animal husbandry
Aquatic animal culturing
Handling and transportation
C206S472000, C220S004230, C220S507000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06237535
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
For many years, there has been large demand for live lobsters at areas distant from where the lobsters are harvested. To satisfy this demand, lobsters have been packaged and shipped great distances, including shipment by air transport.
In many instances, live lobsters were simply placed in large cartons, such as cardboard cartons lined with suitable insulation, for shipment. Ice, refrigerated gel packs or other cooling means were added to lower the temperature of the lobsters during shipment. Unfortunately, many of the lobsters were damaged or died during shipment in such containers due to injury resulting from their inevitable contact and smashing together caused by such handling and shipment.
An attempt to overcome such problems resulted in the shipping container described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,260. The container described in this patent is a carton large enough to accommodate a plurality of live lobsters with an intersecting array of partition walls introduced into the container to subdivide its interior into a plurality of compartments. Each compartment is configured to receive a single live lobster.
An improved container is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,218,923. The container described in this patent comprises a bottom section having a plurality of lobster holsters, each suitable for containing the body and tail of a single lobster in a manner which supports the claws of the lobster at the elbow. This container has an upper section with an interior void suitable for containing cooling means for the lobsters contained in the holsters within the bottom section of the container. The holsters provided by this container provide shock protection, hold the lobsters snugly in place in the event the box is tipped and provide supplemental thermal insulation to each individual lobster in addition to that provided by the outside walls of the container. Suspending the lobsters in the holsters of this container allows the lobsters to spread their claws providing access to the gill portions of the lobsters to facilitate the introduction of moisture and lower temperatures to the gills during shipment.
While the lobster container described in the aforementioned patents provide substantial advantages over the use of cardboard cartons and the like, they still have certain drawbacks. They are, for example, designed to contain only one specific crustacean, namely the clawed lobster, Homarus Americanus. They are not practical for shipping lobsters or other crustaceans having significant size variations nor for crustaceans having significant shape variations from Homarus Americanus, such as Spiny lobsters, crabs or shrimp.
In addition, these containers are generally limited to top-down cooling which provides uneven and uncontrollable temperature gradients between the top and bottom of the container. This can present serious problems since it is scientifically documented that temperature directly affects the health and mortality of crustaceans. Top-down cooling often results in hot spots, wide temperature swings and severe temperature gradients throughout the container. Additionally, there is no ability in these containers to regulate or provide higher temperatures for warmer water animals.
In general, these containers are designed for holding lobsters for short periods of time outside of their natural water environment. They are generally not designed for reuse and are certainly not designed to facilitate the storage of lobsters or other crustaceans in a wet holding facility. The use of such containers results in the lobsters being packed, unpacked and repacked several times between the point at which they are caught and the ultimate consumer. These containers do not have the ability to hold lobsters in sea water or a cooking vessel.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a blank for a multi-sided container for live crustaceans. This blank comprises a base member with one or more thermal conditioning wall members foldably connected to it. In addition, thermal infiltration barrier wall members opposite to the thermal conditioning wall member or members are also foldably connected to the base. The thermal conditioning wall member or members and infiltration wall member or members have partial side wall members extending substantially orthogonally from them in an aligned relationship whereby the thermal conditioning wall member or members and the infiltration barrier wall member or members can be folded to bring their partial side wall members into contact, thereby forming a multi-sided container for live crustaceans having one or more compartments.
The crustacean container of this invention is designed to hold and transport live crustaceans in or out of their natural environment. Crustaceans for this application include all types of lobsters, shrimp, prawns, crabs, fresh water crayfish or all animals in the biological classification of Crustacea. The container can be formed to fit each animal's anatomical shape and size. Temperatures can be adjusted by using different warming, cooling or freezing mediums and/or varying the thermal conductivity of the materials of construction. Conditioning circulation can be adjusted to control the air or water flow on one side or all sides of the animal. Shippers can reduce costs while improving product quality using this crustacean container. The custom shapes make it quick and easy to pack the animals. They can be packed by the fisherman on the boat, transferred through the various distributions and holding facilities, and boiled in the pot without reducing the quality of the animal by stressful handling during this long process. The shipper also has the flexibility of using any type or size outer packaging and the ability to reduce shipping and storage costs when the containers are empty by utilizing the nesting feature of the blanks for the container.
Biologically out of the water, the crustacean container provides the animals isolation, physical protection, humidity plus an even and controlled ambient temperature without stressful wide temperature swings and gradients. In the water, the crustacean container provides stress limiting isolation in a protected den, thus eliminating the need to fight for territories within the tank. The animals stay healthier. They can also be transferred from the fishing boat to the holding tanks of the various distributors, to the air cargo packers, to the distant last level distributor and to the consumer's cooking pot without the stresses caused by handling each individual lobster.
This crustacean container provides the shippers and their customers with a wide range of flexibility in holding and shipping options regardless of their geographical location. The nesting design of the open crustacean container gives the ability to pack a large quantity of crustacean containers in a relatively small amount of cubic volume. This gives shippers in remote seacoast areas of industrialized countries or newly industrialized countries access to the product at more reasonable freight costs. The ability to immerse the crustacean container in water allows the storage of animals in wet holding systems. Animals can be pre-graded and packed when labor is readily available and cheap. At shipping time, the animals can be drained and packed into an outer container without the stress of being directly touched again. Receivers of the animals can inspect the animals without removing them from the crustacean containers and can place the module directly into their tanks upon receipt, thus eliminating another stressful handling operation. The operation is again repeated when they are repacked by the receiver and shipped to another distributor or the ultimate customer. The structurally independent modular design of the crustacean container allows the flexibility of selecting any size or type outside shipping or storage container. The outer container can be selected to pack a large number or small number of animals per unit. Using different size crustacean container modules, one type of outer container c
Hamilton Brook Smith & Reynolds P.C.
Price Thomas
Rose Seafood Industries, Inc.
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