[Nhcoll-l] bagging and thawing or thawing and bagging?

[Thomas Labedz]

Dirk
So, they are still in the boxes and not sealed? I think your idea is good and makes the situation more manageable. Maybe with a stiff brush give the fins a good dry scrub to remove any insects parts before creating the subsets in bags. This will make it easier to determine if pest control freezing was successful. At the future time when the bagged fins are removed from the freezer and brought to ambient temperature you could examine for excess condensation in the bags, opening and adding desiccant pouches as necessary and resealing. I don’t have a lot of experience with shark fins here in the middle of the continent but wonder if oils in the fin will cause future problems and have concern that oils in combination with the moisture will enable mold or fungal growth as well as general discoloration. I’d love to hear from others about how that might be handled.
Thomas

Thomas Labedz, Collections Manager
Division of Zoology and Division of Botany
University of Nebraska State Museum
Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S.A.


From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Dirk Neumann
Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2020 5:58 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] bagging and thawing or thawing and bagging?


Hi all,

a brief question regarding bagging of dry shark fins that were confiscated by customs (approx. 50 kg) and deposited in our collection. When the material arrived, boxes were full of life with thick layers of beetle remains at their bottom. We kept the fins mostly frozen so far (several freezing / thawing cycles to kill the critters) but now have to move the fins into our storage area where they will be kept at room temperature.

Because of major renovation works, our climate control systems are currently shut down thus temperature and rH are fluctuating and not really stable, thus I was wondering if I should seal small subsets (5-10 fins, depending on their size and volume) while they are still frozen to avoid that tissues would attract too much humidity during thawing. Of course this would cause condensation inside bags after sealing to some extent, but given the small total volume of air inside the bags, potential negative effects might be negligible ? Bagged fins will finally be stored in transparent plastic boxes to allow easy monitoring.

Any ideas/ suggestions would be welcome; thanks in advance

Dirk
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Dirk Neumann

Tel: 089 / 8107-111
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Dirk Neumann

Tel: +49-89-8107-111
Fax: +49-89-8107-300
neumann(a)snsb.de

postal address:

Bavarian Natural History Collections
The Bavarian State Collection of Zoology
Dirk Neumann, Section Ichthyology / DNA-Storage
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