March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Milbridge couple process sea cucumbers for China> `Cukes’ offer niche as urchin share sags

MILBRIDGE — When the Chinese serve up sea cucumber to celebrate their new year in February, few may realize some of the holiday delicacy they’ll be feasting on came from a small Maine coastal town.

For two years now, Lawrence and Drusilla “Doody” Ray have been turning sea cucumbers into a dehydrated product most commonly used as an ingredient in soups and stir-fry dishes in Asian countries. They appear to be the only Maine seafood business processing the pickle-shaped marine creatures sold largely to China and Korea.

Located on Wyman Road in Milbridge, Cherry Point Products Inc. was hopping early Monday morning as some 45 workers busily processed sea cucumbers — called cukes or pickles by fishermen — harvested the day before by the Rays’ son Stuart on the family’s fishing dragger and Mount Desert Island fisherman Stewart Workman.

Standing at long fiberglass tables, lit by overhead lights, the men and women quickly cut open and gut the slimy brown creatures. They swiftly scrape out the muscle washed by shower nozzles hanging above. Some of the raw meat was to be air-freighted directly overseas while some would be boiled first in cookers before being dehydrated in ovens.

Sea cucumbers are messy and labor-intensive to process and don’t command anywhere near as high a price as sea urchins. The low return is why so few Maine seafood businesses have gone to the expense and trouble to harvest them and extract the meat.

But the Rays have carved out a niche for themselves at a time when the sea urchin harvest — another integral part of their seafood business — has been steadily dropping due to Japan’s economic crisis and other factors. They also have a dive shop and trucking operation.

“We knew the urchin market was not going to be as strong as it had been,” Lawrence Ray said Monday. “We didn’t want to be completely dependent on one thing.”

Cucumaria frondosa is the species of sea cucumber abounding in waters off Maine and the Canadian Maritimes. The creatures congregate in thick beds on the ocean floor and are harvested by vessels using heavy scallop drags. They boast an orange crown of tentacles enabling them to feed on seaweed and plankton.

Indonesia, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Singapore traditionally have been the world’s leading exporters of sea cucumbers. But as the preferred species found in the Pacific has become less abundant, importers have sought another species that grows in Maine.

Several years ago, the Rays began looking into sea cucumbers as a means to diversify their business. They were helped by Stonington seafood entrepreneur Pete Collin, who has experimented with every imaginable seafood including dog fish, slime eels, sea anemones, sea peaches and whelks.

Two years ago, the Milbridge couple built the processing plant at their property on Cherry Point off the Wyman Road. The facility is equipped with a commercial-size dehumidifier and cookers. The racks used for drying the sea cucumbers were built out of lobster trap wire.

The Rays began processing and selling their raw and dried product to a Chinese company. They also supplied the seafood to Collin who has developed a line of sea cucumber-based dietary supplements sold in health food stores across the nation and abroad.

The Rays have had a host of Chinese visitors tour their plant and advise them on every aspect of their operation. They say the Chinese are very particular about the quality and appearance of the finished product.

“Strict quality control is the key,” Doody Ray said.

The couple also have found a way to dispose of the considerable seafood waste generated by their operation. The sea cucumber remains are hauled to Addison and mixed into a compost produced by Elliot Batson.

Since starting up their sea cucumber operation, the Rays have broadened their markets to include Korea as well as some seafood buyers in the United States and Canada. During the summer, they also serve up the marine creature deep fried at the family’s takeout, Joshy’s Place, in Milbridge. They say one customer came several times per week to get his fix of the novelty dish.


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