BANGOR, Maine — November 19, 2014 — With a loud beep and a whooshing intake of air, a roomful of Maine seafood processor representatives got an up-close look Wednesday at a machine intended to address several problems the industry faces.
The device, about the size of a dormitory room refrigerator, was brought to Maine this week along with representatives from Xifuri, the Chinese firm that developed it, as a possible solution to Maine’s green crab problem. The invasive crustaceans have wreaked havoc on Maine’s shallow clam flats during the past few years — some more than others — by destroying softshell clam populations and upsetting the balance of the state’s coastal habitat.
Fisheries officials in Maine and Canada, where the crabs also pose a problem, have been looking for ways to incentivize their harvest by creating markets for them. A big hurdle has been trying to find an effective way to process the creatures, which are smaller than Jonah or rock crabs and pose a more complicated meat extraction challenge.
But industry officials who gathered Wednesday at the Oriental Jade restaurant for the demonstration seemed more interested in the device’s potential impact on a different species: lobster.
Read the full story from the Bangor Daily News