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Whole crayfish is processed to derive a food serving resembling
in appearance a small lobster by deheading the crayfish, making
a U-shaped incision around the belly shell encompassing the anal
opening of the crayfish, and peeling away the belly shell including
the anal opening and the digestive tract still attached to the anal
opening, thereby to devein the crayfish and expose the edible flesh
contained in the hard shell in a single operation. When subsequently
heated during cooking, the flesh tends to curl slightly away from
the hard shell for easier extraction.
An apparatus for grading crayfish is provided, comprising a tank
having a bottom and sides forming a cavity which will hold water;
and a grate assembly having multiple, vertically separated tiers
to form spaces between adjacent tiers of sufficient size to accommodate
a pre-determined amount of crayfish of pre-determined size. Each
tier comprises multiple, horizontally separated round bars, the
spacing between the bars in each succeeding lower tier being less
than the spacing in the upper tiers. A process for grading crayfish
of multiple sizes is also provided, comprising the steps of loading
crayfish onto a top tier of a grate assembly of the type described
above positioned in a water-filled tank, lifting the grate assembly
from the tank after a period sufficient in time to allow all crayfish
to seek the lowest level tier achievable in accordance with their
size, and removing all crayfish located between one set of adjacent
tiers separately from crayfish located between any other set of
adjacent tiers.
This invention pertains to the remote harvesting of crayfish by
trapping them within a trap submerged in water and then, when harvesting
is desired, by applying a counterweight for pivoting the trap so
that the trapped crayfish are passed to a line for flushing the
crayfish to a collection tank. This operation is accomplished remotely
from the harvester and more than one harvester can be connected
to the collection tank.
A crayfish harvester boat apparatus having a principal boat portion
open ended with side walls and a bottom portion defining a container
and occupant space therewithin; a pair of rear drive wheels hingedly
mounted to the rear portion of the boat, and a steering wheel hingedly
mounted to the front portion of the boat, the rear drive wheels
in front steering wheel so mounted to the boat so that upon application
of pressure, the boat can be lifted from position flat against the
ground to a position substantially above the location of the rear
drive wheels and front steering wheels; the power means including
hydraulically controlled pistons for lowering and raising the boat
between positions. There is further included a power drive system
connected onto the rear drive wheels for providing a plurality of
drive speeds to the apparatus as it is propelled on land or in water.
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