Lobster207.com was launched in March for people to be able to order live lobsters from anywhere in the country
According to their website, Lobster207 is a union-based cooperative owned by lobstermen in the area.
In 2013, a union of lobstermen came together with concerns over falling catch prices that were threatening the industry.
Lobster207.com was launched in March for people to be able to order live lobsters from anywhere in the country.
The process for shipping lobster anywhere includes:
Step One: About 200 to 500 fishermen place up to 400 traps to catch thousands of pounds of lobster.
Step Two: The lobsters are then taken to an indoor tank.
‘And we’ll grade through them and separate the hard shells from the soft-shelled lobsters,’ Sullivan said.
‘And the hard-shelled ones are the shippable ones.’
Step Three: Lobsters are packed into special boxes inside a Styrofoam cooler. They are stacked on top of ice gel packs that are layered with paper and seaweed.
Sullivan added: ‘We’ll put seaweed on top of them, and that’ll drip salt water on them. It’s just that added little touch.’
Step Four: The crustaceans are covered in more gel packs, wet paper and kept insulated.
‘They haven’t been sitting in tanks for weeks,’ Sullivan said.
‘Most of the time they’re out of the water for maybe a day or two.’
Each box set comes with complete cooking instructions and the lobsters have to be cooked as soon as possible.
‘Don’t order them on a Tuesday and keep them for a Saturday cookout because that’s a long time out of the water,’ Sullivan added.
‘The more you handle this product, the worst it gets and the weaker it gets. So we handle it as little as possible.’