EASTPORT, Maine — October 1, 2012 — Maine and its Canadian neighbors have a tightly linked and sometimes confrontational relationship when it comes to the buying and selling of lobsters. One Eastport entrepreneur decided to take what he learned from his Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, counterpart and construct a state-of-the-art onshore lobster pound based on a design concept fully implemented throughout the Canadian Maritimes.
David Pottle is a born businessman who was raised on the water. According to his father, Basil Pottle, "When he was in eighth grade he would go to school all week and then fish with his brother on the weekends, making more money than his teachers."
For the past 25 years, David Pottle has gained a reputation as a highly competent fisherman, skilled owner of a construction company and a responsible lobster dealer. Starting with two small storage tanks at his Perry home, he began buying from his fellow lobstermen. He then sold in volume to his distributor, the Milbridge facility of Inland Seafood, a food corporation based in Atlanta.
During the past seven years, he watched his home-based business grow to nine tanks with a capacity to hold 9,000 pounds of lobster.
"People hear by word of mouth [about your reputation] and then want to sell to you," he says.
Now Pottle is preparing to open a new lobster pound in Eastport this winter that increases his capacity by more than tenfold. Unlike most lobster pounds in the area, Pottle's new operation is a land-based design that integrates refrigeration to keep a lobster fresh and healthy for up to three months from the time it is caught.
Pottle first became interested in land-based lobster pounds when he visited one owned and operated by Wade Nickerson at SeaKist Lobster in Nova Scotia. The idea stuck with him, and as his business grew, he thought a land-based operation was the best opportunity to expand.
Modeled after the Nickerson plant, Pottle's 6,000-square-foot Lighthouse Lobster and Bait facility is located on the south end of Moose Island in Eastport. The three-acre property was acquired from the city in May 2010 with a bid of $43,000.
"It is not often that a property so ideally situated becomes available. I had an idea and I went at it," he says. Pottle used his own money to purchase the property first, then sought loans to combine with his own funds to secure the $1.2 million he needed to set up the business.
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