Re: [Killietalk] Shipping fish eggs

[Wright Huntley <whuntley at inkmkr_com>]

Ken wrote:

snip...

> I said all that to say; I suppose just sometimes despite the best efforts of
> both "traders", something simply damages eggs enroute (at least to & from
> certain places). I don't know what can be done...

IME, the biggest problem with international egg shipments tends to be 
one of insulation from the sharp temperature changes. The skin of a 
plane at 40,000 ft can be somewhere down around -50F, so the best of 
heating and pressurization does very little to protect a package with 
less than an inch of solid styro around the eggs if it is deck loaded. 
Unsealed seams can make the styro lose up to 90% of its insulating 
ability, too. Solid box with fitted lid is needed.

Think how stable, by comparison, your fishroom egg box is.

Aluminum foil is utterly worthless for blocking X-rays. If you suspect 
the inspection equipment, they do sell, at photo shops, lead-lined bags 
for protecting film. One of those might help, too. [They might be a good 
last resort, if you have consistent bad results to/from a particular 
country.]

Some countries have known, active, Al Kaeda cells working. Singapore is 
one of those. Therefore you should expect all individually-sent packages 
from there to be held and opened for inspection by customs. It doesn't 
pay to lie on the content declaration, if you know for sure the package 
will be opened and your lie exposed. [Smuggling was an easy and honored 
way of life before 9/11. Not now.]

Too much stuff that would be destroyed by radiation is routinely shipped 
by air, so I tend to not suspect the X-ray gear, but blame poor thermal 
insulation or other bad packaging for most failed egg shipments.

Just my US$0.02. YMMV.

Wright

PS. It costs nothing to prominently label the package "PERISHABLE! 
Please do not deck load."

-- 
Wright Huntley - Rt. 001 Box K36, Bishop CA 93514 - whuntley at verizon_net 
- 760 872-3995

  "One in four Katrina victims were white people; so if this was a 
racist conspiracy, it wasn't a very good one."  -- Ann Coulter

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