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After the fish have graded themselves, the harvest begins. It usually takes place at night. The fish travel better at night and arrive at the processing plant early in the morning. There are six live wells on the truck that are injected with oxygen, ensuring that the catfish will arrive in excellent condition.
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The loading basket has a trap door in the bottom.
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The basket is lowered into the teeming mass of catfish.
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A boom truck will pick up the basket and load the fish into live wells on the truck.
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There is about 3,500 pounds per basket or 1,167 fish are retrived with each scoop.
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There are no chemicals used in the pond. it is a totally controlled environment. A sample fish is sent to the processing plant for assessment. Tasters at the plant decide when the fish are ready for harvest. A select few fish from each load are ground up and anaylzed for chemicals by the USDA.