Fisherman shells out $500K for lobster holding tank to maintain control over selling process

A fisherman and business owner in Cox’s Cove, on Newfoundland’s west coast, has built his own lobster holding tank — one that can hold 48,000 pounds of the crustacean, to ensure he has more control over the selling process. 

Rick Crane of Crane’s Legacy says he built the tank to remain an independent seller.

“This is all me,” he told CBC News in a recent interview.

“The lobster market is like the stock market. It goes up and down, as you could see, like this year, with the lobster buyers not always buying. You can’t always fish and you can’t always sell. With this, this stops that.”

The tank means Crane’s Legacy will dictate when they fish, he said.

“And if [buyers] don’t want to buy them from us, we will just hold them until they do.”

The $500,000 lobster pound, which took several years to construct, includes a large water pump that pumps more than 1,400 litres a minute and reaches 300 metres out into the ocean off Crane’s wharf.

Today he has about 100 crates filled with lobster in the 1.4 C water.

The business employs 21 people. Workers monitor the tank’s temperature and oxygen levels, vital to keeping the lobster alive and happy, according to Marine Institute aquaculture instructor Chris Dawe. 

Dawe has researched the best living conditions for lobsters in live holding tanks for established seafood processors.

“The water is bringing them oxygen. It is also carrying away the waste the lobsters produce. Without a continuous renewed supply of water, you would not be able to hold lobster long term in a tank or structure,” he said.

Dawe says lobsters can live six to eight months without being fed in tanks, if the water is cold enough.

Dawe says Crane now has the ability to hold his catch for when the price for lobsters is better and when there are no other lobsters available.

“For a fisherman to do this on his own allows him to be in more control of his resource,” said Dawe. “The big fish plants are doing this on a large scale because they want to be able to hold their lobster to times when they can get a better price for them. And that added benefit doesn’t get back to the fisherman.”

While the lobster tank has been operational for only a few weeks now, Crane says he’s already seeing the benefits; he says received a call from a large buyer that needed 50 crates — or 5,000 pounds — immediately for a buyer in Boston. 

The whole operation sits in the very spot where his father used to have a fishing shed. Crane says the idea of a independent holding tank came from his father, nearly a decade ago.

“He would be very proud. It’s nice to see it. It makes you feel good when you come in. We sought out to do something and we did it.”

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