Click for printable version
Click to send to a friend

Bob Eddy holds an Australian freshwater lobster at his farm south of Mina. Eddy has a half million lobsters, many the size of a fly. Photo by Jeff Scheid. A sign warns motorists on U.S. Highway 95 south of Mina to keep an eye out for any strays from Bob Eddy's farm, where he raises Australian freshwater lobsters. Photo by Jeff Scheid. Bob Eddy looks for lobsters at his farm near Mina. He places old tires in his ponds because lobsters tend to hide there and it makes them easy to catch. Photo by Jeff Scheid. Click image for an enlargment.

Monday, February 04, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Lobsters can't cow ex-cattleman

Profits make braving sharp claws worth risk

CARSON CITY -- Old-timers warn travelers venturing Nevada's lonely roads to expect the unexpected. But even the most sage desert dweller never spied a business like Bob Eddy's lobster farm near the forgotten hamlet of Mina.

Among the sagebrush and brown mountains, Eddy raises a half million beautiful, blue and red Australian freshwater lobsters.

A lifelong resident of the Mina area, Eddy raised cattle for decades. Tired of federal rules and boom-and-bust market prices for beef, the 59-year-old went searching for a new career seven years ago.

He found he could sell lobster for $14 a pound. Just as important, nobody in the federal or state government had dreamed up regulations to hinder such an endeavor.

Today, Eddy estimates he has 500,000 lobsters, many of them the size of a fly, scurrying around in 80-degree water pumped from nearby hot springs.

"I found out about lobsters just by reading," he said. "It got interesting. I got rid of the cows."

It was all simple math to a man in the cow business for so long. Eddy figured a mother cow could have two calves that would produce 1,600 pounds of beef in two years. But a lobster mother could have thousands of babies that would produce 3,000 pounds of meat a year.

"It's all agriculture," he said. "With the beef, you might get $1 a pound versus $14 for the lobster. That's the economics."

There is a caveat though. "It works except for the death count. I don't know what my mortality rate is."

His Desert Lobster farm can be found along U.S. Highway 95 about 280 miles north of Las Vegas at a spot three miles south of Mina. Signs in front of the property read "Lobster Crossing" and "U812 Lobster Lane."

As far as Eddy knows, he is the only person in the country raising lobsters in the desert and the only lobster farmer in Nevada.

He sells all of his decapods to passers-by from the highway. About 4,700 cars race by on the highway every day. Enough see the signs to keep Eddy busy.

"The gold mine in Mineral County now is this highway," he said. "You just need to get people to stop."

You won't find many 1- or 2-pound lobsters in the large tanks Eddy has both indoors and outdoors on property. Customers have bought off the big ones, so most of Eddy's sales now are of the quarter-pound variety.

Eddy sells only live lobsters, so a customer who wants 2 pounds of lobster will take home eight live lobsters packed in a plastic bag.

"People who buy lobsters are used to buying them live," he said. "You have to drop them in boiling water for 3 1/2 minutes. They are so much better fresh."

By the summer of 2003, Eddy hopes to open a lobster restaurant in Mina, a town of about 100 that nearly has died for the lack of any sort of business. He purchased two lots on the town's main street for just $3,500.

Already, Eddy imagines a boat-shaped restaurant becoming his lobster McDonald's. He plans to sell a meal of lobster, cole slaw and french fries for $6.95.

Eddy envisions displaying in his restaurant the artifacts he has found during a lifetime of desert traveling. He has a stone Indian pipe, axe heads and dozens of arrowheads. He also has many kerosene lanterns taken from old buildings and metal candle holders used by workers in mines.

The hardest part of raising lobsters is making sure the critters have just the right amount of fish food.

He points to a tub where his grandchildren dumped too much feed and the lobsters died of overeating. Lobsters will eat each other if they don't get enough food, though.

Eddy regularly climbs into the tanks filled with his lobsters when the ponds need to be cleaned. Seldom do the lobsters bother him, although he has been pinched many times.

"They aren't as aggressive as you would think," he said. "When I am alone messing around here they will come out, but if a stranger walks in the door, because of vibrations or something, they hide. Their claws cut like razors. You have to be careful."

The lobsters thrive in 3 feet of hot water pumped into old tomato tubs. In the tubs, Eddy places old tires, where the lobsters tend to hide. When a customer wants a couple, he fishes out a tire and a half dozen or so can be found there.

Eddy has discovered another use for the heat given off by his lobster tubs. His lobster barn doubles as a greenhouse, and he grows rows of tomatoes above the tanks.

He and his wife, Pam, often lunch on fresh tomatoes, lettuce and lobster. Lobster isn't his preferred food, however. Like a true cattleman, he prefers rib steak.

Eddy hasn't made a lot of money off his lobster farm; but he remains confident the business will boom, especially if he opens his restaurant.

"If it isn't successful, at least it has been fun," Eddy said. "It is better than being on horseback going across some ridge with the wind blowing."