August 13, 2012 — At a time when most Maine lobster is processed in Canada, a young entrepreneur wants to turn the tide of the industry back toward the state with a new processing plant here.
Kyle Murdock, 23, who grew up on Monhegan Island, plans to have the Sea Hag Seafood plant running by Monday in the former home of Great Eastern Mussel Farms.
At first, Sea Hag Seafood will process as much as 20,000 pounds of lobster a day. The plant has the capacity to process 40,000 pounds per day — 4.8 million pounds in a five-month season.
In comparison, Linda Bean's Maine Lobster in Rockland, the state's third-largest processor, handles roughly 4 million to 6 million pounds a year.
Despite his youth, Murdock is all business. He knows, down to the penny, what he can pay for lobster to keep the plant profitable, and knows that his profit margin depends on the one-quarter to one-half gram of lobster meat on the end of the tail.
"Mishandling the product in the slightest can eliminate profits," he said. "This business is all about the margins."
With his father, brother and uncles all working as lobstermen, Murdock grew up in the industry and worked as a sternman.
So starting a lobster processing plant — and ditching his studies of physics and differential mathematics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute — felt like the right thing to do for the industry and Maine.
"Maine has a processing problem," Murdock said. "I realized how much help the industry needed."
Sea Hag, which uses the name of Murdock's father's boat and a restaurant that his parents once owned, is on seven acres of waterfront on Long Cove in Tenants Harbor.
Murdock said he paid $455,000 for the property and spent another $350,000 renovating the long-vacant facility and installing equipment.
Read the full story in the Portland Press Herald