Friday, October 3, 2008

The Development of the Live Lobster Trade

By Sherry Shantel

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?

We all know that the original citizens of America were the Native Americans. There were so few of them back in those days and so many lobsters just lying around in tide pools, that they could have all they wanted. If the truth were told, though, they didn't want any to eat. To them, a lobster was just fertilizer for their fields. They also used the meat as fish bait.

The early European settlers which graced our shores didn't eat lobster meat, either. They'd pick them up by hand to use as fertilizer or to feed to the lowest creatures of their society, slaves, indentured servants, children, and the poor. After years of this practice, indentured servants begin to protest the constant lobster diet. In fact, they went so far as having it written into their contracts that they would never have to eat lobster more than three times a week.

Until the early 19th century, people collected lobsters by hand from tide pools along the shore. The first lobster traps didn't appear until around 1850. Lobster meat was only sold in cans, and the canned meat just didn't have much flavor, so it wasn't popular with consumers.

When our transportation system developed sufficiently to transport live lobsters, the meat finally caught on with the public. They were shipped to the finest restaurants in America's largest cities where only the well-to-do were able to afford to eat them.

Have you ever felt a little funny about watching a lobster resting quietly in a fish tank only minutes before he appears on your plate? Don't worry. That's been a common feeling since people began eating lobsters years ago. But if you want to experience lobster in its freshest form, this is the way it has to be done.

My great-grandmother lived most of the way through the 1960s. People around her were eating lobsters and other seafood, but she refused to even consider the possibility. It's not that she was a picky eater, because she had been raised to eat everything that was put on her plate. It's just that her sensibilities had been honed during America's Victorian era when ladies would never even think about something as ghastly as tossing a live lobster into boiling water. Pass me the smelling salts, please!

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!

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