Canadian lobsters get Maine support

PORTLAND, Maine, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- A U.S. heiress is drawing criticism for her marketing efforts to differentiate Maine lobsters from their Canadian cousins, observers say.

Linda L. Bean, heiress to the L.L. Bean mail-order clothing empire, has embarked on a campaign to have Maine's lobster catch branded "real," as opposed to so-called "impostor" lobsters caught in Canada's Maritime provinces. Peter McAleney, president of the Maine Import-Export Lobster Dealers Association, is opposed to Bean's effort, The Globe and Mail reported Saturday.

"This is her opinion, not the opinion of anyone else in the state of Maine," McAleney told the newspaper. "I've been buying from Canada for 31 years. Six months, I have my own, six months, I get Canadian lobsters. ... I don't know where the heck she's going to get her lobsters in the spring. It's very complex, and you can't let one individual ruin the relationship between Canada and the U.S."

Bean, who owns a U.S. lobster processing facility, told The New York Times this month, "What we're trying to do is raise it up a notch in terms of identification as being very special."