The problem of moving live lobster from Atlantic to Western Canada or the Western United States so it arrives as fresh as it was when it came out of the water prompted Antigonish, Nova Scotia fisherman and self-taught engineer Joe Boudreau to buy into a holding system for live animals developed in the mid-nineties. “I got heavily involved around 2000,” Boudreau recalled.
He redesigned and re-engineered the original prototype trailer to deliver living product and eventually became the major shareholder in the business. He calls his company BioNovations, Inc.
Asked where he, a commercial fisherman, got his engineering experience, Boudreau replied, “I’m not an engineer, but I’ve been around. If you’ve been aboard a boat when you’re a young fella, you have to be able to change the engine and do the hydraulics, do the electrical.” Noting that a lot of fishermen learn their way around these systems, he said, “You have to be knacky around a boat if you’re going to survive in the fishing industry”.
Those who fish different species have to be able to build a lot of different gear for the different fisheries. He said he had been involved in a live holding system with his own co-op, had always been interested in holding systems, and had been involved in a heating business. BioNovations manufactures and sells its live holding equipment and is gearing up to manufacture and sell trailers to carry live shellfish and other fresh food so it arrives at its destination in the same condition as it left its point of departure.
The holding system uses computerized moisture, oxygen, and temperature controls to keep the lobster or other live animals or vegetables or fruit at the same quality as when packed. These systems work for live lobster, crab, mussels, clams, and oysters.
Boudreau has also developed a modular food-grade plastic stacking tray system to keep the lobster from being able to cannibalize each other, yet the trays are so light: 40 pounds when loaded, he stated, “One person can handle the trays or totes, they go on a plastic pallet and are fork-lifted in and out of the trailer. It takes only two people to unload the trailer.”
This innovative method of shipping live product will allow supermarket and restaurant chains to receive consistent quality wherever delivered once or twice a week. The trailer will reduce transportations costs and is more environmentally friendly than the method now used.
One of Boudreau’s most enthusiastic advocates and customers, Grapevine, Texas wholesale lobster dealer Darrell Brodrick, ships product directly to the end user from his operation, Lobster Harvest, Inc., in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) Airport. He has been in the lobster business for 32 years and started using Boudreau’s holding systems ten years ago.
He used the term “virgin plastic” to describe the food-grade quality of the plastic tubs Boudreau uses in his holding systems. Brodrick went on saying, “Another thing I like [about the tubs] is, they’re insulated, so they pretty much keep the water temperature constant. Fiberglass has a tendency to create heat. So they’re better than fiberglass plus they’re virgin plastic so they don’t leak toxins into the water like fiberglass does.” He likened Boudreau’s totes to an ice chest in that they keep the water consistently cold. “I went for the systems,” he said; “I thought they were a smart move.”
Brodrick started with a 7,000 to 10,000-pound system, built it up to a 30,000-pound one, and is just as or even more enthusiastic about having his product packed back east and shipped directly to him via one of Boudreau’s specially designed trailers rather than shipping by air.
“We’re dependent solely on the airlines,” Brodrick explained, citing problems with flight availability and the movement of freight. “It seems like freight is the stepchild in the industry,” he said. He had just unloaded a 2,000-pound air shipment of lobster. It took him two hours. Boudreau’s trailer carries 30,000 pounds and takes two people four hours to unload. “I could receive ten to eleven times more product in about the same amount of time,” Brodrick said, “because it would come already packed and pre-graded in the totes.” He added, “The neat thing about the truck is it would be solely your product, your truck. It would be you and the boats; there would be no one else but the two drivers.”
Brodrick thinks so and believes in the system fervently. He has had Boudreau give a presentation on his products to a major buyer, hoping the buyer will change from flying lobster all over the country to driving it in one of Boudreau’s rigs.
Boudreau expects to begin manufacturing his trailers in July.
For more information, go to: www.bionovations.ca