I’ve eaten lobster in restaurants, but until I visited New Brunswick, Canada, I hadn’t caught a wild lobster, prepared it, or eaten it fresh from the ocean. I also sipped champagne after watching the bottle being slashed open with a saber, sampled fresh- and salt-water caviar, and toured an environmentally friendly wild sturgeon fishery and aquaculture facility. That was all new for me too.
Many visitors come to New Brunswick, an eastern maritime province, to enjoy fresh seafood—especially lobster. New Brunswick is home to Shediac, the self-proclaimed “Lobster Capital of the World” (for the record Barrington, Nova Scotia and Rockland, Maine claim the same title). They may be surprised to learn they can also sample world-class caviar since the Saint John River is an excellent source of Atlantic and Shortnose Sturgeon.
On a recent press trip to New Brunswick, I caught lobsters in Shediac and visited Acadian Sturgeon and Caviar in Carter’s Point. It’s the only company in the world that produces caviar from wild sturgeon.
In New Brunswick, lobster and caviar can get pretty wild.
History of Lobster in New Brunswick
Processing lobster has been a Canadian tradition for over 100 years, but lobster was not always an expensive luxury. They were once so plentiful that they were fed to prisoners, apprentices, and slaves. Farmers used them as fertilizer.
That started to change in the late 1800s when Shediac native William Blizzard opened a lobster processing plant and began selling lobster on the open market. Émile Paturel, another native, opened a plant to produce canned lobster. He went bankrupt three times but eventually succeeded in turning lobster into a delicacy that generated worldwide demand.
Shediac was an ideal place to grow the lobster industry because it’s near the Northumberland Strait. The strait divides Prince Edward Island (PEI) from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. It has some of the warmest ocean temperatures in Canada because it’s relatively shallow and sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean. This makes it the perfect place for sea life to breed and feed.
In 1949, Shediac trademarked its claim as the “Lobster Capital of the World.” Thousands of visitors have their pictures taken by the Shediac Giant Lobster each year and attend the annual Shediac Lobster Festival.
Homarus Eco Centre: All About Lobsters
At the Homarus Eco-Centre, visitors can get up close and personal with lobsters and marine ecosystems. The center’s mission is to promote the importance of marine habitats and resources and ensure the sustainability of lobsters and the lobster fishing industry in Atlantic Canada.
Homarus Eco-Centre partners with New Brunswick lobster fishermen to supply egg-bearing female lobsters for a breeding and larvae-stocking project. It also has an adoption project for lobsters released into the ocean once they mature.
During a guided tour (available in English and French), I learned about a lobster’s life cycle and had the opportunity to touch baby and adult lobsters. It was fun to watch their claws at work up close and to feel their antennae brush my hands. I also learned that lobsters taste with their feet and that often fight since they’re very territorial.
Shediac Bay Cruises: The Lobster Experience
My next stop was the harbor for a Lobster Experience tour with Shediac Bay Cruises. The company is run by Ron Cormier, a retired lobster fisherman with 29 years of experience, his wife Denise, and their two daughters, Renée and Chantal.
During our two-and-a-half-hour cruise, “Captain Ron” showed us how to fish for lobster. I grabbed the thick rope and felt salt spray hit my face as we hauled in a trap full of lobsters.
Captain Ron provided cooking tips and demonstrated the best way to crack the claws and pincers and pull out the meat. One tip: Place lobsters belly-up when you remove them from the water after boiling. This preserves the juices and keeps the meat moist. He also showed us how people in New Brunswick eat lobster–cold and plain, because melted butter and lemon mask the fresh taste. I tried it and would happily eat it either way.
After Captain Ron’s presentation, we all enjoyed a freshly cooked whole lobster with potato salad, coleslaw, and a roll. The lobster tasted as good as Captain Ron promised. We ate it “New Brunswick style” while listening to traditional Acadian music.
Caviar: New Brunswick’s Best Kept Secret
Most people think caviar comes from Russia or China, and are surprised to learn they can get excellent caviar in New Brunswick.
Dr. Cornel Ceapa, a native of Romania, became interested in sturgeon while fishing on the Danube River. After earning his Ph.D. he moved to Canada and opened Acadian Sturgeon and Caviar.
I boarded a ferry near Saint John and drove to his facility near the Saint John River to tour his aquaculture center and processing plant and sample caviar.
Ceapa offers Sturgeon and Caviar Academies and Safaris, where visitors go on fishing trips, participate in sturgeon harvest and research, and enjoy gourmet meals along the river.
We first sipped champagne to clear our palates, and to my surprise, Ceapa performed sabrage—opening a champagne bottle with a saber. This became a custom during the French Revolution to celebrate battle victories. It happened so fast that I hardly saw the saber slash the cork. I have no idea where the cork landed.
We sampled Acadian Wild (salt water) and Acadian Emerald (freshwater) varieties of caviar. They look similar, but the Acadian Emerald eggs are larger. Both have a buttery, nutty flavor and were delicious with a charcuterie board that Ceapa’s wife Dorina prepared.
Ceapa keeps tanks full of sturgeon at all stages of growth in his aquaculture center. When eggs are ready to be harvested, he makes a small incision on the female’s belly, carefully scoops out the eggs, and stitches the fish shut. We saw him remove stitches on an incision that had healed.
Responsible Sturgeon Fishing Practices
Sturgeon are among the oldest fish on earth but have become endangered worldwide due to over-fishing, and because often only the eggs are used and the rest of the fish is thrown away. Acadian Sturgeon and Caviar addresses this problem by producing products that use the entire fish.
When Ceapa arrived in Canada, there was no market for or interest in sturgeon. He now travels throughout Canada to introduce chefs and restaurant owners to sturgeon and shows them how to incorporate it into their menus.
Ceapa catches enough fish to meet demand while avoiding over-fishing. He uses sustainable methods approved by Ocean Wise to catch around 300 Atlantic sturgeon annually. He releases half the catch to protect the health and numbers of the wild population.
Acadian Sturgeon and Caviar also helps repopulate sturgeon stocks worldwide by selling live sturgeon for aquaculture and restocking. It ships fertilized eggs and larvae to Poland, Germany, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia, as well as sturgeon farms throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States. Caepa’s work has benefits around the world.
Thank you to New Brunswick Tourism for hosting me. Find information about New Brunswick lobster and caviar visits here.
