Retail & wholesale seafood

Most of our catch comes from the cold waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Northumberland Strait. Lobsters mainly live in shallow water, and as they grow, they move toward the deeper water. We catch the majority of our lobsters within a few miles of shore, and most come from the shores immediately surrounding Prince Edward Island.

The warm-water lobsters are the spiny or rock lobsters found in Florida, the Caribbean and southern California. The true lobster, the North American lobster, is found in the colder waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. The major difference is that the true lobster has large claws full of meat, whereas meat can only be extracted from the spiny lobster's tail.

Except for minor physiological differences, the male and female lobster are very much the same. The female lobsters may sometimes have roe (eggs) inside the body cavity, which turn bright red upon cooking. Restaurant chefs occasionally request female lobsters from us for the roe to use in presentation.

The largest lobster we ever shipped was 20 to 24 inches long and approximately 17 pounds. It was caught here in PEI, where over-sized restrictions aren't in place. Picture the width of a kid's lunchbox, which was about the width of that lobster. Larger lobsters can be shipped, but the trip is very strenuous on larger, older lobsters.

Blue lobsters are rare, as the pigments in their shells are genetic defects. Most lobsters are greenish-brown in colour, but we've seen blue, bright red (almost the same colour as cooked) and even part-white lobsters.

Like all arthropods, the nervous system of a lobster is very primitive and contains far fewer nerve cells than our nervous systems. The nerve cells are grouped in clusters called ganglia. Further, a lobster has no cerebral cortex, the area of the human brain that gives the perception of pain.

Lobsters have special gills that allow them to survive out of water. If they are kept cool and damp, lobsters could probably survive out of water up to a week, but we wouldn't recommend eating them!

Yes. In 1990, the National Institutes of Health tested lobster for cholesterol content and found that it was just as low in cholesterol, fat and calories as chicken and turkey. Just watch out for the drawn butter!