Approximately one-half of shellfish beds of the United States have been closed by the Federal Drug Administration because of high bacteria count. However, it has been found that shellfish may be harvested from beds having high bacteria count and thereafter placed in uncontaminated water for a predetermined length of time in order to allow the shellfish to depurate themselves.
Although depurating shellfish in this manner may be profitable and allow substantially twice the number of shellfish beds of the United States to be productive, past attempts at depurating shellfish have included harvesting of the shellfish from high bacteria count beds, transporting the harvested shellfish to uncontaminated waters and then dumping the shellfish into clean waters. After the shellfish have remained in clean water for a predetermined length of time, they depurate themselves and may thereafter be harvested for the second time.
However, it has been found that depurating shellfish in this manner results in considerable loss of shellfish inasmuch as the depurating process takes approximately fifteen days and some loss of shellfish occurs as a result of natural marine shellfish predators. Further, it is substantially impossible to harvest all of the shellfish during the second harvest and the shellfish, during the fifteen day depurating process are concentrated and thus easily pirated before the second harvest of the shellfish from the uncontaminated water may be accomplished.
Accordingly, a need exists for an apparatus whereby shellfish harvested from contaminated waters may be safely enclosed against natural marine predators and against pirating while allowing free current flow of water about the harvested shellfish for a period of approximately fifteen days during which the shellfish may depurate themselves.
Various forms of storage containers for trays of various types are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,046,095, 2,119,640, 2,943,747, 2,986,284, 3,199,683 and 3,963,125. However, these previously known structures are not well adapted for enabling safe and effective depuration of shellfish in the manner hereinafter set forth.