Do you have lobster in your carry-on luggage?

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PORTLAND, Maine — Walk down the brightly lit terminal hallway at Portland International Jetport, past a gift shop, Starbucks and Burger King, and you’ll find a Maine attraction: two acrylic tanks that bisect the bar and restaurant at Linda Bean’s Maine Lobster Cafe.

The crustaceans on the seafloor are dark brown, burnt orange or nearly black; lobsters turn fire-engine red only when they are cooked. On a recent visit, their powerful claws were bound with thick yellow and blue rubber bands to prevent them from crushing each other. Above them, a chalkboard read: “Lobsters Packed for Shipping.”

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The message ends with an asterisk: Passengers must have space for their carry-on items on flights.

Maine lobster is a hallmark of quality in restaurants across the U.S. For travelers passing through the state’s largest airport, this 180-seat restaurant and lounge is a last chance to sample the local delicacy — lobster rolls, lobster eggs Benedict, lobster Bloody Marys — or grab a live lobster to go.

Live lobster has been part of the menu at Linda Bean’s since it opened at Portland Airport in 2011. Selling lobster requires special permits and licenses. But they’re not the first restaurant to sell live lobster at an airport; Bangor International Airport in Maine once sold live lobster. Halifax Stanfield International Airport in Canada still sells live lobster.

On the day I visited, the arthropods—1¼ pounds each—were selling for $46.99, plus a $12.99 packaging fee for each to-go cooler (up to seven per cooler).

Passengers passing through Portland Airport can choose their favorite lobsters. Staff members remove the lobsters from the tanks by hand and place them in a foam cooler with ice packs. The cooler is placed in a cardboard box that is taped shut for transportation. Passengers can then place the lobster box in the overhead bin or under the seat like other personal items.

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Linda Bean is part lobster The empire built by Linda Lorraine BeanShe is the granddaughter of another LL Bean, Leon Leonwood, founder of the Maine retail giant. Bean died in March, but the business that bears her name lives on. Tourists flock to Maine in the summer for its rugged beaches, cool weather and, of course, lobsters, with airport vendors selling up to three live lobsters a day.

“We order about two dozen a week,” said Mike Valeri, sous chef for HMSHost, the airport catering company that oversees day-to-day operations at Portland Airport.

When the airport is busy, the volume increases. But in the off-season, “it’s down a lot,” Valeri said, with perhaps only one sale a week. Mary Gowan, a waitress at Linda Bean for six years, said the bulk of the buyers are “definitely tourists.” The restaurant occasionally sees business travelers. Pilots are repeat customers.

“(They’ll say) ‘It’s my anniversary, I want to have some lobster tonight,'” Govan said. “A lot of people do that.”

About a month ago, a customer called ahead to order live lobsters to go so they could be picked up on the flight faster. Govan remembers people buying up to a dozen lobsters at a time, totaling more than $500.

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“This is Maine,” she said, “and they want something new.”

From the ocean to the airport

Valeri said that in theory, lobsters can survive in a tank for three weeks, but it is best to eat them as soon as possible.

“The longer they’re in there,” Valeri said, “the more likely it is that they’re going to suffer, or have declining health, or suffer all kinds of injuries.”

Portland Airport restaurants get fresh deliveries every Friday from a Rockland-based distributor Bean Maine Lobster, Inc.is a business sold by Linda Bean to her employees in 2016. They travel from the docks at Port Clyde and Vinalhaven to the HMSHost warehouse and then to the airport to go through security.

In 2014, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cited Linda Bean’s processing plant for “serious” violations in seafood processing; Bean called the allegations “legitimate” at the time and said she was addressing them. Bean also helped Maine’s lobster industry get certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council; that certification was later revoked in 2022 due to the impact of fishing on North Atlantic right whales.

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But if you want to bring your own luggage to the airport, you should be able to pass through the TSA checkpoint without any problems.

“If they’re still alive, we recommend that you put them in a cooler,” said TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein.

The TSA allows live and frozen lobsters as carry-on, along with items to keep them cold, moist, and fresh, such as ice or completely frozen ice packs (melted, gooey ice packs will not be accepted on the plane if they exceed TSA liquid restrictions).

“You can also pack frozen perishable foods with dry ice in your carry-on or checked baggage,” Farbstein adds. Keep in mind that the Federal Aviation Administration has a 5.5-pound limit on the amount of dry ice each passenger can carry. Additionally, the dry ice must be clearly marked, properly packaged and ventilated, and approved by the airline.

Valeri said live lobsters can withstand 24 hours of shipping, but if you find that the lobster is dead when you arrive at its final destination, Linda Bean will send you another one free of charge.

How do you know which one to choose? Most people just let her choose for them, Govan said. But you should look for a lobster that’s scrappy and active, Valery said; you want one that’s alive and well, not sick. He reached into the tank, and a pumpkin-colored lobster stood up on its hind legs and clamped down on the intruder.

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“Look how alert he is,” Valeri said. “You know he’s healthy when he’s so active.”

If your lobster is squirming too much to carry or cook, Valery demonstrates a trick. “You start here and stroke its lateral line,” he says, sliding his middle finger over the lobster’s back like a massage. “If you do that for a few minutes, it calms down… and you can manipulate it any way you want.”

“Do you pet lobsters?” I asked.

“You stroke the lobster,” Valery said.

As he stroked the lobster’s mottled shell, it seemed to relax. It lowered its claws from a defensive stance and slumped. Then it was put in the cooler.

Where can I buy local products?

Like everything you buy at the airport, live lobsters are more expensive than in the city. With tax, packaging, and tip, my lobster cost more than $70. At Harbor Fish, a beloved dockside seafood market that has been serving downtown Portland since the 1800s, the same size lobster was $22.99.

Markets like Harbor Fish will package your seafood purchases for you to take with you on your trip. You can also pack your own, making sure the lobsters stay cold and wet; some people just use ice or ice packs, others put in wet seaweed.

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Customers on the Lucky Catch cruise can experience the joys of lobster fishing in Portland’s Casco Bay for $50, and at the end of the trip they can purchase live lobsters for about $12 each.

Lobster Captain Brian Rapp Lucky Catch Cruises ExcursionsKaren Landon, a Maine native who works on the St. Croix passenger ferry in Portland, said the lobsters at the airport “are probably fine,” but people would have a better experience if they came into town and bought them from a local supplier.

Although I didn’t have a flight to catch the day I visited Linda Bean’s, I wanted to give handling a live lobster a try, but on the way back from the airport, I felt a sense of dread as I thought about the fate of the critters in the box.

Valery convinced me that there was something noble about killing your own food, and that the lobster’s relatively quick death was preferable to the death of factory-farmed animals.

“The difference is we have to sit there and witness and judge whether eating this animal is worth the discomfort,” he said.

All I have to do is boil the lobster for nine minutes. Or, Valery says, some people pierce the lobster first and then boil it.

But as my giant soup pot steamed, I looked directly at the fish I had caught from the airport. What a mistake. I ran to the nearest dock and threw the $70 back into the ocean.

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