ROCKPORT – A New Hampshire-based business is giving new meaning to the term “surf and turf” by selling a processed cowhide for lobster trap bait.

Traditionally, lobstermen have stuffed inexpensive fish into their bait bags, with herring being the popular choice in Maine. As scavengers, lobsters are drawn to the smell of the rotting fish.

But the herring gets gooey after a few days in the water and dissolves, and must be replenished.

Bob Brown, who owns Sealure North American LLC with his brother-in-law, Mike Magley, said he converted to using the cowhide product as bait several years ago. Brown fishes 900 traps out of Hampton, N.H.

“I was a customer,” he said of the 15-year-old business, before he and Magley purchased it five years ago.

Brown and Magley pitched their product Friday to fishermen attending the trade show at the annual Maine Fishermen’s Forum at the Samoset Resort.

Though Brown said he was pleased with the results he was getting with the cowhide bait, he didn’t do the business any favors.

“I never told even my best friends about it,” he said, smiling, admitting to being a typical, laconic lobsterman.

Sealure bait is cut from the thickest part of a cow’s hide, the men said, and each piece is about the size of a wallet. The company, with a home office in Manlius, N.Y., treats the USDA-certified hide, but that is about all the men will reveal.

The benefits of the cowhide are many, Brown said.

Not only does it outlast herring inside a submerged trap, but it can last as long as three or four weeks. That’s important, he said, when bad weather prevents rebaiting, because the traps continue to “fish” with Sealure as bait.

And rather than have to drive to pick-up fresh herring, Sealure can be purchased at the fisherman’s convenience at various marine product stores in sealed, six-gallon buckets. The product doesn’t have to be refrigerated.

Sealure is more costly – about $130 for a six-gallon bucket, compared to $40 for a three-bushel barrel of herring – but many fishermen prefer the ease of handling the small buckets.

And Brown believes that when factored over time, the longer-lasting Sealure is on par with herring on cost.

Pat White of York, CEO of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, is one satisfied Sealure customer. After mixing it in with herring for a couple of years, White committed to using the cowhide exclusively last year.

“I’ve been extremely pleased with it,” he said Friday. At 63, he said he appreciates the ease of lugging the small bucket compared to wrestling with a barrel of bait.

With concern about the future of herring stocks, White said lobstermen should be aware of alternative baits like cowhide.

Sealure is sold from New Jersey to Nova Scotia, Brown said, with Maine accounting for about 70 percent of the market.