Shediac breaks world record for longest lobster roll

Shediac Lobster Festival gets underway Organizers look to set a record for the world's longest lobster roll at the Shediac Lobster Festival.

The Shediac Lobster Festival has set a new record for the world’s longest lobster roll, coming in at a whopping 106.2 feet – 20 feet longer than the previous world record.

Each lobster was hand-selected and shipped across town to the Shediac Lobster Shop, where they were cooked and shucked by hand.

“The Maillet family's pretty proud of the heritage here in Shediac. They started supporting the lobster festival when it first began and they wanted to make sure we have the best lobster, with the best meat possible for the lobster roll,” says Daniel Belliveau, with the Shediac Lobster Shop.

In total, 167 lobsters were cooked to supply the 85 pounds of meat needed for the record-breaking roll.

“Every half inch we have to pull it in the oven, every half inch, every time,” says Mario Savoie, a member of the lobster roll committee. “So that's why we need a lot of volunteers, and as we did that, this belt is rolling and it comes out cooked on the other side here. Then we need more volunteers to pull the pan as it goes. The same time we push in, people need to pull out.”

Last year, the Shellfish Festival in Charlottetown beat the Shediac record, but Savoie says that claim comes with an asterisk.

“They tried, but they used our first year number which was 72 and they did 78 or 79, I'm not exactly sure, but they didn't beat the 85,” says Savoie.

The Shediac Lobster Festival is a long-standing tradition in a town known as the lobster capital of the world. The lobster festival has been an annual event in Shediac, N.B. since 1949.

The Shediac Lobster Festival acts as a bit of a homecoming for people from the area, but it's also on the must-do list of the thousands of tourists visiting the region.

“People come home, they schedule their vacations for this time of year to come and enjoy the activities. There's people from Quebec, Ontario that's asking us for tickets in January to be sure to get tickets,” says Tammy Brideau, director of the lobster festival.

The Pazuik family from Manitoba made a point of stopping to see what a world-record lobster roll looks like.

“Our rule for this trip is seafood every day, so we're really happy to go see the attempt at the world's largest lobster roll,” says Sharon Paziuk.

The 67th Shediac Lobster Festival wraps up on Sunday, with 1,000 people sitting down to enjoy a lobster dinner.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Jonathan MacInnis