Science and seafood combine at UMaine

In Gouldsboro, lobsters and crabs are being frozen with a new technique that protects their texture and flavor. In Walpole, researchers are developing a way to turn low value sea urchins into products that fetch the highest market prices. In Orono, a prototype snackfood has emerged from efforts to use the discarded meat from processing crabs and lobster.

Economic development specialists point out that knowledge is the key to future growth. The above examples show that Maine’s seafood industry is a case in point. Our marine sector is huge. The Maine Department of Marine Resources lists 63 commercial species harvested from the Gulf of Maine in 1999 with a landed value of more than $322 million. We have only begun to tap the potential for science to make a difference to our fishing communities.

With funding from the Maine Science and Technology Foundation (MSTF) in 1999, the Cranberry Point Seafood Product Development Center in Gouldsboro bought a machine that uses liquid nitrogen to turn fresh seafood into frozen products in a flash. Live Maine lobster continues to top the menus in gourmet restaurants, and its frozen cousin extends the market to places where keeping animals alive is impractical.

The knowledge for creating a marketable frozen Maine lobster didn’t exist a decade ago. Freezing whole lobsters had been tried before with mixed results. It took research through the Lobster Institute, supported by Icebrand Seafoods, to develop a cryogenic process that works reliably. The result was a patented process that can generate new products and reach new markets.

In Walpole, Acadia Seafood International is using grants from the MSTF and the Maine Technology Institute to develop a technique to reverse the decline in the sea urchin population and increase the value of harvested urchins. The urchin harvest peaked in 1995 and has declined significantly since then. Acadia’s research at the University of Maine’s Darling Marine Center is the latest in a series of efforts to create the foundation for an urchin hatchery to supplement the wild urchin population.

Even if the urchin population can be increased, Maine’s urchin industry faces another problem: increasing the quality of urchin roe. Color is the key. The best golden roe emerges from well-fed urchins, but when diet is poor, the roe can turn brown. Low quality roe fetch less than $30 per pound. Top quality goes for more than $100 per pound. Mick Devin, founder of Acadia, has developed a controlled feeding technique that enhances the golden color of roe and thus increases its value.

Each of these products fits a different market. Frozen lobster meets the needs of gourmet dining facilities, such as cruise ships, while the urchin roe market is in Japan. A third new product may become familiar on neighborhood grocery store shelves in Maine. Food scientists at UMaine are working on a snack chip using powdered crab shell and mince, the bits of meat that are left on the shell after processing.

Working with Professor Denise Skonberg and the Lobster Institute, graduate students have developed prototype chips through an extrusion process. The crab mince is mixed with corn meal, potato flakes, spice and other ingredients and then subjected to steam and pressure in the extruder. The final product is a crispy snack food that has the consistency of a puffed corn breakfast cereal. An added advantage is that powdered crab shell contributes chitin, a natural substance that is high in calcium. The snack food could benefit people who need more calcium in their diet.

The role of research in the seafood industry mirrors similar trends elsewhere. In the January issue of Atlantic Magazine, Jonathan Rauch points out that U.S. oil producers have increased production from old well fields by using improved computer programs, drilling technology and geological research tools. In short, new knowledge is generating growth in a mature industry that was thought to be in decline.

In Maine’s commercial fisheries, a combination of aquaculture research and product development is generating new, more valuable seafood products even as wild fish stocks continue to struggle.

This is not to suggest that research is like a machine. We can’t put dollars in one end and expect new products to emerge from the other. Science usually proceeds in fits and starts. Results tend to accumulate in many disciplines before they lead to new applications. Economic growth also depends on a variety of factors, including the commitment of individuals and political support.

Nevertheless, research has become the right hand of Maine’s seafood industry.

Nick Houtman is the science writer with the Department of Public Affairs at the University of Maine.