UMaine mentioned in Press Herald article on lobster industry

The University of Maine was mentioned in a Portland Press Herald article about the popularity of live lobsters in Asia. Two-thirds of the live lobster sold overseas by the U.S. last year went to Asia, up 36 percent from the year before. The growth in the $231.9 million Asian market is welcomed by the Maine lobster industry, which accounts for 83 percent of the U.S. haul, according to the article. Asian customers prefer lobsters that are larger than the ones that Maine used to sell to Europe, and those lobsters once bound for Europe aren’t hardy enough to survive the long trip to Asia, the article states. Recently, Ready Seafood Co. of Portland was notified it had received a $2.25 million grant from the Maine Technology Asset Fund to help build a facility to research and test ways to improve the hardiness of lobsters for shipping. The company already was collaborating with UMaine to see if it can speed up the shell-hardening process of recently molted lobsters. The grant will help offset the $6 million cost of the project, Press Herald reported.