Eight to 10 lobsters survived the journey from the cold waters of Maine to the Black Rock Desert for Burning Man this year.

But they didn’t make it out alive.

Lobster207, a company based in Maine, shipped out a 10-pound box of lobsters to a group of Google Burners. It was the first time live lobsters made the trip to the annual festival, according to David Sullivan, manager of Lobster207.

The order was made Thursday, and the box arrived Friday at an address in Sunnyvale, Calif., Sullivan said. From there, the lobsters took a two-day road trip to Black Rock City where the week-long, 70,000-person event — known for its principle of "radical self-reliance" — is happening.

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Sullivan said the 10-pound box of lobsters that made the trip to Burning Man was worth $90. Shipping cost about $40.

“So it was $139.58 to ship eight to 10 lobsters to California,” he said, adding most live lobster shipments can cost anywhere from $160 to $220 depending on the business.

“What we were trying to do with Lobster207.com was to make it so that the everyday person who works a 9-to-5 job can afford to get fresh Maine lobsters without having to go to these expensive restaurants,” Sullivan said.

“I would guess by talking to the guys from Google that they thought it was a really cool idea to say, ‘Hey we got Maine lobsters all the way from the east coast from the cold waters of Maine out here to the desert,’” Sullivan said.

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“They asked if we could ship them out so they could take them to Burning Man and see if they could survive the journey basically from the ocean floor to the deserts of Nevada,” Sullivan said.

As for the meal?

“They said it was very fresh and lively,” he said. “It was everything we were hoping for, too, when we sent them out to the desert.”

What is Lobster207?

Lobster207 is a union-based cooperative that’s owned and operated by Maine lobstermen, according to the company’s website. The founders of Lobster207 were approached by a union of lobstermen in 2013 with concerns over the falling catch prices that were threatening the industry.

They met with lobstermen from up and down the coast of Maine and eventually formed Maine Lobstering Union Local 207. The founders of the company purchased a wholesale operation in Trenton, Maine.

“The fishermen wanted to market their own products because there are so many people in the middle that market the lobsters and make money off of the lobsters,” Sullivan said. “It’s a revenue stream they were never able to be a part of.”

“For us, it’s literally caught by the fishermen, brought to the Warf, loaded on their trucks and then loaded on to UPS,” he said, adding the lobsters were then flown to California. “So it never leaves our custody.”

Lobster207.com was recently launched in March to give people a chance to order live lobsters from anywhere in the country, Sullivan said. The company focuses solely on selling lobsters.

“Fisherman up in Maine, they fish for scallops, they fish halibut and they sell different things like that,” Sullivan said. “But we haven’t opened up in that avenue.”

How the lobsters made the trip to the desert

About 200 to 500 fisherman a year place up to 400 traps to catch thousands of pounds of lobster a day. The lobsters are then taken to a facility with an indoor tank.

“And we’ll grade through them and separate the hard shells from the soft-shelled lobsters,” Sullivan said. “And the hard-shelled ones are the shippable ones.”

The lobsters are then packed in special boxes. Inside the box, they’re placed in a Styrofoam cooler. The lobsters are stacked on top of ice gel packs layered with paper.

“We’ll put seaweed on top of them, and that’ll drip salt water on them,” Sullivan said. “It’s just that added little touch.”

The lobsters are then covered in wet paper, and more gel packs are placed on top of them to keep them insulated.

“They haven't been sitting in tanks for weeks,” Sullivan said of the lobsters. “Most of the time they're out of the water for maybe a day or two.”

The box comes complete with cooking instructions.

“Don’t order them on a Tuesday and keep them for a Saturday cookout because that’s a long time out of the water,” Sullivan said, adding the lobsters should be cooked right away.

“The more you handle this product, the worst it gets and the weaker it gets,” he said. “So we handle it as little as possible.”