System for culture and storage of benthic organisms in an aquatic environment

A method for handling containers for storage of benthic organisms in an aquatic environment by means of a system comprising at least two containers in a stack, at least two lines attached to the lower portion of the stack and connected to at least the upper portion of the stack, a suspension device connected to the lines, a platform with a least one opening, a raising/lowering device and a transport device, characterised in that it consists of the following steps:

• a) attaching the lines to the raising/lowering device,
• b) raising a first stack with container to a position where the top container corresponds to the operator's working height or the transport device's working height above the platform by means of the raising/lowering device,
• c) releasing the top container from the first stack,
• d) transferring the top container by means of the transport device to a second position, and initially attaching a first container in the second position to lines connected to a raising/lowering device,
• e) for containers which are transferred after attachment of the first container, connecting the last transferred container to the previous container transferred, thus forming a second stack,
• f) lowering the second stack until the upper surface of the stack's top container comes into alignment with the transport device's transfer plane,
• g) repeating steps b)-f) until all the containers in a stack have been transferred and
• h) lowering the second stack.