Medha Imam: In Maine, lobsters are harvested
the old-fashioned way.
Fishers utilize traps that haven't changed
in over 100 years
and must be hauled one at a time.
Cold-water lobsters, like here in North America,
are typically clawed lobsters.
What ours are known for a lot
is that claw and knuckle meat, which is really tender,
really sweet, and really delicious.
Which is why Maine lobster is regarded as the best.
We head out to Portland Pier
to see how lobster is harvested and processed.
Lobster harvesters are out on the waters
as early as 4 a.m.
Curt: So, we're hauling up the trap right here.
Everybody has their own buoy colors,
and that's how you know whose trap is whose.
We're in 28 feet of water right here,
and let's see what we catch.
There it is.
So, this is a two-night soak,
and here we have one beautiful lobster.
Medha: On average, fishers like Curt can haul
anywhere from 250 to 300 traps in a single day.
That can amount to 800 to 900 pounds of lobster.
Curt: The coast of Maine has more coastline, mileage-wise,
than California, believe it or not.
All those nooks and crannies and islands
are prime lobster territory.
And so we source from all different areas
all along the coast of Maine.
What attracts the lobsters into the trap is bait.
So we're just going to add a few more fish here to this one.
And the way the trap works is pretty simple.
So, they smell the bait in the trap,
and they crawl into the trap,
and they get up in here,
and it's difficult for them to get back out.
Every trap is required to have these escape vents
to protect juvenile lobsters.
Medha: And are the guidelines in Maine
very different than anywhere else in the world?
Curt: We were really the pioneers
in terms of a lot of these rules,
in terms of a lot of other places
didn't have a maximum size.
Now they do, because they've seen
how well our fishery is doing.
Medha: Normally, lobsters take five to seven years
to reach legal harvesting size.
The minimum size is 3 1/4 inches carapace length.
The maximum size is 5 inches carapace length.
And you're probably wondering,
why do we throw those bigger lobsters back?
Medha: Yeah, why do you throw the older lobsters?
Curt: The bigger lobsters are the breeders.
On to the next!
I don't think I'm doing this right.
Curt: You got it. You got it. You had it last time.
Medha: Oh, my God, I did it!
OK, so I pull it?
Curt: Now put that up and over there.
And then under here, and then over there,
right in the middle of that.
And let me know when you see the trap coming up.
It's coming.
Curt: One, two, three.
Put that over the claw, just like that.
And now twist.
You're hired.
That's pretty good.
I've been fishing in this cove for, gosh, 25 years now.
You really want to take care of the resource
in your own backyard.
Lobsters grow by shedding their old shell
and starting over with a new soft shell.
So, this shell is actually pretty firm.
If you squeeze the sides,
you can see there's not a lot of play there.
Medha: No.
Curt: But if you squeeze this claw right here,
you see how there's a little bubble
in that knuckle right there when I squeeze it?
See how it's moving?
Medha: Oh, yeah.
Curt: That means there's still water inside the shell
where the actual meat of the lobster
hasn't grown into the new shell that it has.
And that's why a lot of people say
new-shell or soft-shell lobsters are a little sweeter
and more tender than hard-shell lobsters,
because essentially they have that water in there
brining the meat inside the shell.
My favorite ones to eat are ones
that literally shed their old shell right in the trap,
and they have a new paper-thin shell
that you can literally just peel right off.
For the most part around the world,
the majority of lobster species
don't have two claws like this.
So we're fairly unique in that regard.
Medha: There are no corporate lobster fleets.
It's one person, one license, one boat.
These tanks, you can dip your finger right in there.
You tell me. Very cold, right?
Freezing!
38 degrees, so almost freezing.
So, the reason we keep these tanks cold like that
is because lobsters are cold-blooded critters.
And if we're shipping around the world
in a box on an airplane,
we need their metabolism to be very, very low.
Medha: The second destination for harvested lobsters
are processing plants up in Canada
or locally in Maine, like Luke's Lobster.
Here, 35,000 to 45,000 pounds of live lobster
are processed a day.
To cook, the lobsters are steamed
in a convection steam tunnel,
then dropped directly into a chiller to stop the cooking
and bring the temperature below 40 degrees
as quickly as possible.
70% of lobster that's caught in Maine
gets processed rather than being sold live.
That's what's necessary to make
the different products that the market demands
so that our fishermen can keep catching
as much as they can sustainably catch.
Medha: No part of the lobster goes to waste.
The shells end up on a conveyor belt
that leads to a crusher.
The crushed shell is then powderized into a fertilizer.
What's edible will wind up as a minced meat
that's packaged, vacuum-sealed, and frozen
to then be used as flavorings
for things like lobster bisque
at restaurants like Luke's Lobster.
But the most popular outcome of a harvested lobster
is quite possibly the lobster roll.
Such a tender, yet firm meat.
It feels like you're getting so much of it in one bite.
And for me, I really just like the fact that
all the flavor comes from the actual lobster itself.
There's no extra seasoning.
If you were getting a hard shell that hadn't shed yet,
more likely the meat would be firmer.
It wouldn't be quite so juicy.
It would have a bit of a meatier,
maybe a little saltier flavor, not quite as sweet.
Still be delicious, but it would not have
this kind of juicy, sweet experience that we're having now.
It's a perfect treat for the summer day
because of how cold it is, but also so refreshing.
We think that when lobster gets tossed in advance
with a bunch of other ingredients,
that just covers up its flavor,
and we like to serve it pure just the way it is.
Early morning workout.
I'm trying to keep awake.