DownEast Magazine: The Raw and the Cooked
"We're trying to offer a way to keep more lobster in Maine so Maine lobstermen can continue their great tradition and heritage," Hathaway says.
North by East
January 2007
Opinions, advisories, and musings from the length and breadth of Maine
The Raw and the Cooked
A Richmond company wants to keep more lobster in Maine.
The Maine lobster catch has been impressive in recent years, hitting a record 70.8 million pounds in 2004. But those numbers belie what many in the industry see as a problem: As much as 70 percent of the catch is sent to Canada for processing. So not only do Canadian processors benefit from the markup they charge when they sell lobster meat back to hungry Americans, but the meat is then labeled a product of Canada. (So much for the Maine mystique.)
That's just one of the things John Hathaway is hoping to change with his new business, Shucks Maine Lobster. Located in the former Etonic shoe factory in Richmond, just outside Augusta, Shucks Maine Lobster uses high water pressure and a machine it calls the Big Mother Shucker to pop the shells off hundreds of pounds of live lobster at a time. Previously, says Hathaway, "the only way to get meat out of the shell was to cook it. So anyone who wants to use it in a recipe then has to cook it again, which they don't want to do. After all, they don't buy a cooked steak and then re-cook it."
Hathaway buys live lobster from dealers who he says are happy to have another in-state market for soft-shell lobster (those with hard shells are generally set aside to be sold whole since they fare better when shipped). Before Shucks Maine Lobster opened late last year, there were just two other processors operating in Maine. At the moment, Hathaway is focusing on selling the fresh, raw meat to chefs, seafood distributors, and wholesalers; plans for retail products are in the works.
"We're trying to offer a way to keep more lobster in Maine so Maine lobstermen can continue their great tradition and heritage," Hathaway says.
Now that's an idea we can bite into.