Lobsters in New Brunswick

[00:00:05] I am Mark the New Brunswick Traveler and here we talk about New Brunswick's stuff.

[00:00:13] New Brunswick's often referred to as a drive-through province, going to a Prince Edward Island

[00:00:18] or Nova Scotia but more and more were becoming a destination province.

[00:00:24] There are so many great wonderful treasures and natural resources here that we can experience

[00:00:30] from the Bay of Fundy to Mount Carlton to all of the various things that are in between.

[00:00:38] On this podcast I'll be talking about some of those natural wonders.

[00:00:42] We're talking about some of the people that live in New Brunswick, past visitors that have

[00:00:47] come to New Brunswick and maybe even some ghosts that I find along the way.

[00:00:53] So for now let's get started.

[00:01:03] In September, October there are cruise ships that come into St. John almost every day and

[00:01:08] on some days we have as many as three of them here at one time.

[00:01:13] During the cruise ship season I work as a guide for a killer tours.

[00:01:17] One of the tours is to Hope, O Rocks, a unique rock formation in the Bay of Fundy.

[00:01:23] It takes about two and a half hours trip by bus to get there from St. John and we try

[00:01:28] to arrive at Lothide.

[00:01:31] At that point the group can walk on the bottom of the bay and see these beautiful rocks

[00:01:36] six hours later long after we have left to return to St. John.

[00:01:41] The water in that same area can be as high as 52 but making it one of the highest average

[00:01:49] tides in the world.

[00:01:52] On the way to Hope, O Rocks, the bus passes through the village of Alma.

[00:01:56] One of my favorite places to visit on the Bay of Fundy.

[00:02:01] It first got its start in the early 19th century when European settled there.

[00:02:07] At that time the economy consisted of logging, fishing and shipbuilding.

[00:02:12] Being located at the mouth of the upper salmon river it is ideally located for all three.

[00:02:20] Today, Lobster and SuccalPC in remain a major part of Alma's economy along with the

[00:02:28] seafood restaurants that lure tourists to that area.

[00:02:32] If we're traveling through Alma at Lothide the fishing boats will be sitting on the

[00:02:36] mud waiting for that 40 feet of tide to height there to return so that they can return

[00:02:44] to the Bay of Fish.

[00:02:46] Alma is one of the places along the Bay of Fundy that Lobsters can be purchased year

[00:02:52] around.

[00:02:53] Colin Seephard can ship live Lobsters to any Canadian address that UPS or Federal Express

[00:02:59] offers overnight delivery to you.

[00:03:02] They offer box sizes of up to 10, 18 or 30 pounds and ship on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

[00:03:10] Price when I recently checked was $15.99 a pound.

[00:03:14] Similar price in the available from Misty Harbor Seephard in St. John.

[00:03:21] You can also order cooked Lobsters from either of these places, contact information

[00:03:26] will be in the show notes.

[00:03:29] Lobsters Canada's most valuable seafood export contribute in as much as $1 billion in export

[00:03:36] sales.

[00:03:37] In many ways Lobster is Canadians Ambassador to the world and one of the exports

[00:03:44] most closely associated with this country.

[00:03:47] Consumers in 55 countries from Australia to Vietnam and all points around the globe enjoy

[00:03:55] Lobster from Canada.

[00:03:57] In the early 19th century Lobsters were considered a poor man's food.

[00:04:02] The perception of Lobster as a low quality food was likely influenced by preservation and

[00:04:09] transportation challenges in earlier times as Lobster needs to be exceptionally fresh

[00:04:17] to taste good.

[00:04:19] Even though in folklore it's been said that it was primarily fed to prisoners and servants.

[00:04:25] There's no evidence to support that claim.

[00:04:28] The first recorded instances of Lobster fishing and their runs looked back to the activities

[00:04:34] of the indigenous people and early European settlers.

[00:04:40] The MacMack who inhabited the coastal regions of what is now in New Brunswick were

[00:04:45] known to harvest Lobsters long before European contact.

[00:04:50] They used simple methods to collect Lobsters from mud flats and incorporated them

[00:04:56] into their diet, along with other marine resources.

[00:05:02] European settlers began to take notice that the abundance of Lobsters in the region

[00:05:07] as early as the 17th century.

[00:05:10] For instance, in 1597 a sea captain noted the large quantities of Lobsters in Acadia,

[00:05:18] which includes parts of present day, New Brunswick.

[00:05:22] But the 18th century Lobsters were being caught in significant quantities by indigenous peoples

[00:05:29] and sold to English settlers as noted by a British traveler in 1780.

[00:05:37] Up until the 1840s there was practically no commercial Lobster fishery in the maritime.

[00:05:44] Our ancestors would fish Lobsters only to feed their families since it had no commercial value.

[00:05:51] At that time, Lobsters were in such abundance they were used but the thousands to fertilize fields.

[00:05:58] In many cases the Lobsters were simply harvested from those that remained on the shore of the Bay of

[00:06:06] Fundy when the tide receded. An example of just how many Lobsters could pile up on the shore was

[00:06:15] the aftermath of the great storm of 1873. A Lobster processor reported that after the storm,

[00:06:23] Rose of Lobsters won to five feet deep had been throwing on the shore by the waves.

[00:06:31] It was estimated there was an average of 1,000 Lobsters per two yards of beach in some areas.

[00:06:39] That's a lot of fertilizer. The largest lobster ever caught according to various sources was a

[00:06:45] massive specimen weighing 51 and a half pounds. This lobster was reportedly caught

[00:06:52] off the coast of Maine in 1926. However, there's limited photographic evidence to confirm its size

[00:07:00] as it was damaged during transportation and only a picture remains. In terms of officially

[00:07:08] recognized records, the Guinness World Records lists the heaviest lobster as one that weighed

[00:07:16] 44 pounds six ounces caught off the coast of Nova Scotia. The first lobster canary in Southern

[00:07:24] New Brunswick was established in Shediac in 1861. In that year, the whole production of West

[00:07:32] Morlin County was 7,000 pounds of lobster valued at $700. 30 years later in 1891, the production

[00:07:42] was close to a million pounds of lobster with a value of over $137,000. By 1873, 40 canaries had

[00:07:53] been established in Nova Scotia and 24 in New Brunswick. In the 20th century, Nova Scotia began to

[00:08:00] focus more on live lobster market and as left New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island to take over

[00:08:08] the lobster in a can market. In the late 1800s, it was not uncommon for fishermen to catch

[00:08:15] lobster's weighing over 10 pounds. By 1910, 7 pound lobster were seldom seen. Everything was

[00:08:25] getting smaller because the demand of the lobster canaries was more and the lobster crop could

[00:08:31] support. It takes five to seven years for a lobster to reach its first pound in weight. In 1875,

[00:08:40] it took three lobsters to fill a one pound can that the canary. Ten years later, it took seven

[00:08:46] lobsters to fill that same one pound can. The primary lobsters used by canars now will be

[00:09:01] not as much as the one to two pound lobsters that can be sold to restaurants. It was the railroad

[00:09:09] owners in the United States that popularized the fine dining use of lobsters with the opening

[00:09:16] of the transcontinental railroads in 1869. It was easy to ship can lobster meat which became quite

[00:09:24] popular because it was inexpensive. The owners of the railroads offered up this inexpensive

[00:09:32] ingredient from the East Coast as something rare and exotic to their pastures in the dining car

[00:09:40] when they served them lobsters that the pastures had seen his life shortly before. Pastures soon

[00:09:49] began to develop a liking for it, began to demand it when they returned to their own homes,

[00:09:56] increasing the purchase of canned lobster. Perhaps all of this contributed to my mother,

[00:10:03] wanting to order lobster when my father took us to Washington DC in the mid 1950s. I still remember

[00:10:10] her starting to struggle with the cracker and the waiter coming to a sister to extract the meat from

[00:10:18] shell. She was less than happy with this 10 year old Indiana farm boy than insisted on ordering

[00:10:25] the hamburger in French fries at the fancy seafood restaurant where we were eating. It wasn't

[00:10:32] until 1984 while traveling through the state of Maine that I tasted my first lobster.

[00:10:39] Purchased ready to eat at the pier, I think it cost less than $10. And now I'm living in New

[00:10:45] Runswick Square, Shediak, a community on the East Coast of the province is called the lobster

[00:10:52] capital of the world. Fortunately for them, they had purchased the rights to use that designation

[00:10:59] before Burlington, Nova Scotia, got the idea. Burington was left to having to trademark the freeze

[00:11:06] the lobster capital of Canada. Many of the lobsters caught in the water's near Burington are now

[00:11:14] shipped to Shediak area and caned. The fish in and seafood aquatic industry in New

[00:11:23] Runswick had a market size of $695 million as of 2024. I make my small contribution by having a

[00:11:33] $95 dollar lobster roll with fries from time to time. Poor man's food, indeed.

[00:11:50] Thank you for taking the time to come and listen to this podcast today. It's produced,

[00:11:57] edited and hosted by me, Mark Bruer. And it's commercial free. Except for the fact you could go to

[00:12:05] my website and buy me a cup of coffee if you care too. For now, have a good day!