The daughter of a Maine lobster fisherman describes herself as being “born into it.”
Sadie Samuels left the Pine Tree State to attend college across the country in California, but she continued fishing during the summers to pay for her tuition. After graduating in 2013, she began fishing full time — and hasn’t looked back.
Samuels, 32, opened his restaurant, Must Be Nice Lobster – which shares the same name as his boat, F/V Must Be Nice – in a permanent indoor location in 2022.
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Previously, she sold lobster rolls at a farmers market, then from a food cart, then from a food truck, and finally from a brick-and-mortar store in Belfast, Maine.
Samuels fishes off the coast of Maine, where she catches North Atlantic lobsters. These are different from the “spiny” or “rock” lobsters found in the warmer, more southern parts of the Atlantic Ocean.
Sadie Samuels of Belfast, Maine, is the captain of her boat, the F/V Must Be Nice. She also owns a restaurant, Must Be Nice Lobster. (Hannah McGowan)
There’s a simple way to tell the difference, Samuels told Fox News Digital: claws.
“We have the claws on our lobsters and, honestly, that’s where the best lobster meat is.”
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The colder waters off the coasts of Maine and New England produce sweeter-tasting lobster, Samuels said.
“Our water is much colder. And I really think anything that’s in a shell and the colder the water, the sweeter it tastes because they’re producing more glucose, but it just tastes sweeter. So it’s better.”
“Still on the boat”
By the time she was 16, when most girls her age got their driver’s license, Samuels had already been a licensed commercial lobster fisherman with her own boat for two years.
Samuels told Fox News Digital about lobsters: “I definitely think anything that’s in a shell and the colder the water is, it tastes sweeter because they produce more glucose, but it just tastes sweeter. So it’s better.” (Hannah McGowan)
“I was always on the boat with [my father] “When I was a kid, I wanted to do it naturally,” she said.
At just 7 years old, Samuels got her student permit. At 14, she got her commercial license and then went into business for herself.
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“My dad kind of kicked me off his boat because you can only fish 800 traps on a boat,” she said. “So the more I wanted to fish, the less he could fish if I kept fishing on his boat.”
“[My father] “Finally, I said, ‘Well, obviously you’re interested. Go buy a boat,'” she recalls. “That’s pretty much how it happened.”
“A strong and healthy industry”
Although lobsters are not considered an endangered species, there are ongoing concerns about overfishing and population collapse of the species.
As a result, Maine’s lobster fishery is “one of the most sustainable industries – fishing – on the planet,” Samuels said.
“We throw back a lot more lobsters than we keep in a day.”
“We throw back a lot more lobsters than we keep in a day,” she said. “It’s very regulated.”
Each lobster caught must be measured using a gauge. Lobsters smaller than the gauge must be returned to the water, as must those that are larger.
In Maine, every lobster caught must be measured using a tool Samuels holds in his hands (above left). Lobsters that are too small or too large must be thrown back into the ocean. (Hannah McGowan)
The sex of the lobster is also important, especially if female lobsters have visible eggs.
“If the lobster is a female and she has eggs on her, and the second fin to the right of the tail is not notched, then you have to notch her so that the next person who catches her, even if she doesn’t have any eggs on her belly, knows she’s a ‘proven breeder’ and can go back,” Samuels said.
“So even if you catch a lobster, a female lobster that doesn’t have eggs, but has a mutilated fin, you legally can’t keep that lobster,” she continued.
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Keeping these breeding lobsters in the water – and out of kitchens – ensures that the lobster population can survive into the future.
“That’s why we’ve had such a good, strong industry for so many years,” she said.
“Tons of lobsters”
As for the process of cooking and eating a lobster, Samuels has his preferences.
On a roll.
“My favorite way to eat lobster is the classic lobster roll. I think it’s just perfect: a nice toasted, buttered bun with light mayonnaise. Tons of lobster,” she said.
Plus, “you don’t have to deal with the shell part, which, you know, I work with all day, it hurts.”
Samuels got his first lobster fishing license at age 7 and has had a commercial license since age 14. (Hannah McGowan)
And while some people may be reluctant to boil a lobster alive or kill it, Samuels believes from experience that lobsters don’t feel pain the same way humans do.
“Their brains are the size of a pea,” she explained. “And I think if they felt pain like humans, they wouldn’t eat each other – and they do.”
Lobsters, she said, don’t discriminate when it comes to their food.
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“When you put out a trap, you often have to be very quick to get them out because – especially if it’s a big hard-shelled female and she’s got eggs on her – she eats everybody. [and] “She takes it out on everyone,” she said.
Lobsters, Samuels explains, have the ability to detach and regenerate their limbs, something she often sees when she removes lobsters from their traps. (Hannah McGowan)
Lobsters also have the ability to break and regenerate their limbs.
“It’s one of the coolest things ever,” she said. “You’ll often catch a lobster that has a big full claw and then this little jelly claw that grows back. It’s fascinating.”
But what Samuels loves most about lobster fishing is the freedom it offers.
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“I really enjoy being my own boss. And I love that it’s an industry where you can put as much effort into it as you want – you get what you put in,” she said.
“So you can work full time and be fully invested in it, or you can just work part time and still enjoy it.”
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“And you have the best office in the whole world.”
