Aloha Lobsters is owned by Wesley Jay, a life long resident of Hawaii and a 1968 graduate of Molokai High School.  Ever since I was a kid growing up on Molokai in the 1950s and 60s, I always loved shellfish, whether it was crab, lobster, pipipi, opihi or hihiwai.  After moving to Oahu in 1968, I enjoyed going to the all you an eat king crab buffets.  Slowly those started to get replaced by snow crab, which to me, was too much work for the amount of meat you got.  Now even all you can eat snow crab buffets are a rarity and king crab legs and lobster prices in Hawaii are unaffordable for most people.  I started looking on the internet to see if there was a better cheaper way to get my favorite food here.  Even on the mainland, prices are high and shipping is exorbitant.  After a long search, I found a source where I could buy live Maine lobsters direct from the lobstermen and not through a middleman who would add on his profit.  Great,  I thought, but then I found two obstacles that put a damper on my import plans.  One of course was the high cost of shipping.  it costs $4 to ship one lb of live lobster from New York to  Oahu and 20% more to the Big Island.  Because we are a BI based business, we do not charge our customers the additional shipping fee. Nothing I could do about that and shipping is what it is.  The 2nd obstacle to my plans was I found out I needed to get and pay a yearly fee for an import permit.  Without it I would be subject to prosecution with fines and even imprisonment.  I got around that obstacle by following the rules and after a couple of months, was able to get permits for Oahu and the Big Island,  Almost all the sellers of live seafood do not realize that Hawaii requires a permit, as none of the other states on the mainland require one and  they will gladly ship an order to you.  You are the one that will pay the penalty as well as face the lost of an expensive shipment even if the state decides not to prosecute you.  You can be sure none of that will happen when you place an order with Aloha Lobsters.