The Development of the Live Lobster Trade

Close your eyes, and picture that large, mouth-watering lobster waiting on your plate for you to crack open and enjoy. You'd be hard-pressed to think of anything that sounds better. However, don't rush out for a live lobster dinner just yet. Wouldn't it be fun to learn a little bit about the critter you're craving before you indulge?

Once upon a time, America was peopled by only Native Americans, and lobsters were plentiful. They were so plentiful, in fact, that the Native Americans used them as fertilizer for farm fields and fish bait. They never ate them! Yuck!

The early colonists didn't like them much, either. They also considered lobsters to be fertilizer and used them only as food for the poor. They fed them to their children, slaves, and indentured servants. Indentured servants eventually started fighting back and refused to sign contracts until they were guaranteed to only have to eat lobster three times a week. Unfortunately, the children and slaves didn't have contracts.

Since lobsters could be harvested so easily by hand from the tide pools, there was no need for people to devise more technological methods of trapping them. It wasn't until the 1850s that lobster traps first appeared. The lobsters these early harvesters caught weren't marketed live, either. They were sent to canneries. The early canning methods pretty well eliminated the flavor of the meat leaving the resulting product pretty bland and tasteless. Naturally it failed to catch on with consumers.

It wasn't until our modern transportation system developed that live lobsters became sought-after luxury items. Shipped to the big cities, they quickly became expensive luxury food for the higher classes of our population.

Did you ever choose a live lobster from a tank, watch while restaurant personnel remove him, and then have him appear cooked on your dinner plate? It gives you a weird feeling, doesn't it? Your feelings are only normal. You just have to resign yourself to the fact that the little qualms you feel are all a part of the lobster-eating experience.

During my lifetime I've known family members tracing clear back to my great grandmother who was born in 1873. Even when seafood came into vogue, she never ate it. As a Victorian lady, she would never have even wanted to think about throwing something live into a pot of boiling water. After all, women in the Victorian era were sheltered from the harsh realities of life.

At least we've finally learned to appreciate the quality of a live lobster dinner. The prices have even come down enough that middle-class citizens can afford to eat them, too. We can buy them in supermarkets or from online merchants and cook them in our own homes. We've come a long way, baby!