Nova Scotia is home to a diverse range of premium quality seafood and value-added products from world-famous Canadian hard-shelled lobster and coldwater shrimp, to snow crab, scallops, white fish, and sea cucumber. Nova Scotia is Canada’s largest seafood exporter and the industry has witnessed tremendous growth recently. It is well poised for using the latest technologies that would increase output. One such fruitful investment in tech might well be robotics!

 

Robotics is an interdisciplinary field (a combination of two or more academic disciplines into one activity) that involves the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. Robots are purpose-built to help humans with productivity and cost savings while protecting them from dangerous and hazardous situations. In this regard, marine robotics is revolutionizing the marine and fishing sectors through innovative and automated equipment that can significantly increase the catch while simultaneously improving fish welfare, feeding processes, and energy conservation.

 

Riding on robotics’s bandwagon, Clare Machine Works has developed an ingenious product that capitalizes on numerous benefits that Robotics has to offer; The Lobster Trap Stacker.

 

The Lobster Trap Stacker is an ideal way for handling heavy and awkward payloads like lobster or crab traps, in a safe and efficient manner, while reducing physical strain and injury. It can improve the livelihood of local marine and fishing sectors by

 

  • Lowering injury rates: The Globe and Mail, in collaboration with the Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada, the non-profit Institute for Work & Health, and Statscan published a report on worker fatality rates by industry and occupation. The findings of the report testified that the fishing industry has the highest fatality rates. By occupation, three of the top six most fatal jobs are in fishing. The Lobster Trap Stack can help reduce these unfortunate casualties by weeding out accidents due to heavy lifting and letting the Trap Stack move the Lobster Trap.

 

  • Diversified Workforce: As the job at sea is physically demanding, the fishing labor force is dominated by 20 – 30-year-old males. The Trap Stacker can remedy this by letting the Stacker push heavy traps and allowing employers a wider window of opportunity by hiring men and women from different age groups in addition to retaining experienced employees.
  • Increasing Productivity: By using robotics, fisheries can greatly increase the productivity levels of their workforce and thereby generate greater ROI. Currently, the fishing industry is faced with 3 times the average Nova Scotia compensation rates because of the injury claims – with back injuries documented as the most common type of claim

 

 

Clare Machine Works is renowned for building world-class, machine-engineered industrial products for the marine and fisheries sector. With The Lobster Trap Stacker, you have the opportunity to witness first-hand how robotics can help your fishery! And to make an investment that is going to keep your workforce happy while increasing productivity levels.