Introducing Bold Coast Seafood

The famous Stinson Seafood sardine cannery in Prospect Harbor lives again. In mid-September a trio of lobster industry veterans — Curt Brown and Betsy Lowe, both formerly with Ready Seafood, and Pete Daley, formerly with Garbo Lobster and Acadia Seafood — purchased the property for their new company, Bold Coast Seafood. The business has already begun to buy and ship lobsters, and its owners plan to move into processing lobster, Jonah crab and other seafood this winter.

“The Gouldsboro community has been extremely supportive and none of this could happened without that support. We are proud to be part of the next chapter of this facility,” Brown said.

For the past five years, the plant has been quiet, with no activity of any kind taking place. Earlier this year, Wyman’s leased part of the 100,000 square-foot building to create freezer space for its frozen blueberries and other products.

Stinson Seafood closed the sardine processing plant, the last in the country, in 2010. Shortly afterward, Live Lobster purchased the property and began buying and distributing lobster. That company failed in less than two years. The property then was bought by East Coast Seafood, a Massachusetts-based firm. East Coast closed the facility in 2020.

American Aquafarms planned to set up salmon aquaculture pens in Frenchmen’s Bay and use the facility to process the fish, but local opposition and financial difficulties nixed that plan. American Aquafarms CEO Keith Decker owned the property briefly as collateral for a loan he made to the company; the plant was sold at auction in 2023 to Kevin Barbee, Josh Trundy, and Tim Ring, local businessmen, who sold it to Bold Coast.

The well-known figure of "Big Jim" towers over the founders and employees of Bold Coast Seafood at the Prospect Harbor property. Photo courtesy of Bold Coast Seafood.

Brown and his partners see great opportunities ahead, in part because they plan to move into processing Jonah crab. Bold Coast’s purchase includes 65 acres complete with wells that feed from an underground aquifer.

“The biggest selling point for us is access to plenty of fresh water. It will give us a leg up in processing Jonah crab,” said Brown.

“It’s a sustainable fishery, with a product that more people are familiar with and is in high demand. The missing link is having enough water to commercially process the crabs.”

Jonah crab was once considered a nuisance by lobstermen. The robust crab has an appetite for lobster bait but traditionally had little commercial value. Family members might pick the crabs landed by lobstermen for themselves or to sell locally. Picking by hand, however, makes the crab meat expensive.

Canadian companies, like Kildare on Prince Edward Island, currently process Jonah crab. Many seafood dealers in Massachusetts, where the majority of Jonah crab is landed according to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, sell to processors in the Maritime provinces.

Brown believes that Jonah crab offers a bright future for the new company. “There’s a huge opportunity there. There’s so much supply in this region, lobster and crabs. We are investing in the working waterfront and in Downeast Maine,” he said.

At the moment, Corea native Lowe (“our logistics whiz,” Brown calls her) and Daley are at the plant making day-to-day tasks run smoothly. Brown, who lives in Cape Elizabeth, is involved in managing customers and marketing. He also will connect the company with lobster scientists, as he did in his previous role at Ready Seafood.

“We will continue to work on research collaborations to improve our understanding of Maine’s lobster resource and grow our education outreach program,” he said.

Brown’s enthusiasm for his new venture is tangible. Speaking about sharing space in the facility with well-known Wyman’s blueberries, he said, “Now if we could only get a brewery and potato processing in there, we’d be a truly Maine plant!”