Lobster sales go high tech

PORTLAND, Maine -- Two brothers are selling more than just lobsters from their waterfront business. They're selling the lobstering experience -- and it doesn't come cheap.

For $2,995 a year, customers buy the rights to all the lobsters caught in a designated trap off the rocky Maine coast -- at least 40 crustaceans a season, probably more -- and have them shipped whenever and wherever they want.

It's a concept similar to farming co-ops where people lay down money up front in return for a share of a farm's harvest during the growing season. John and Brendan Ready's customers know who's putting food on the table. Customers know the lobstermen, what their boats look like and where the traps are set. Daily updates are available on the Internet.

The Readys, owners of Ready Seafood on Hobson's Wharf, are selling the mystique of lobstering, where seasoned salts in foul-weather gear haul in lobsters from the ocean depths much the same way it's been done for more than a century. Lobstermen who work with the Readys benefit by getting free traps and a premium of 40 cents per pound for the lobsters caught in them.

Markets for the "Catch a Piece of Maine" program include businesses and well-heeled individuals with an interest in knowing where their food comes from.

"We've created a way to add more value to seafood," said John Ready. "This is our way of trying to hit a new market segment."

While it's relatively easy for people to meet farmers at farmers markets or co-ops, it's not as easy to meet the fishermen who supply the nation's seafood. So the Readys let their customers "meet" their lobstermen online, reading their biographies, looking at their boats and discovering their thoughts about the livelihood.

For the program, the brothers are selling the catches from 400 traps -- 50 traps each from eight lobstermen, including the Readys themselves, in the Portland area.

During the May-December season, customers are guaranteed at least 40 lobsters from each trap. But the Readys expect the catch to be closer to 50.

If a customer receives 50 lobsters, that would add up to $60 per lobster. Each shipment also includes clams, mussels, a Maine-made dessert, bibs, cooking instructions and a gift card, plus free shipping.

So far, the Readys have sold the rights to about 30 traps. Their customers include financial institutions, CEOs of small companies and a few individuals. About a third are from Maine with the rest scattered about, as far away as California.

Todd Colpitts, senior vice president at Atlantic National Trust in Portland, bought a trap so he can give away lobsters to clients and potential customers. Besides giving lobsters as gifts, he figures he'll have a great story to tell about the lobsterman who caught them and how the catch can be tracked on the Internet.

"It's such a unique idea. If you have a customer or somebody you'd like to do business with, you can send a bottle of wine and that's nice, but there's not much to talk about afterward," he said.