Young businesswoman Jillian Robillard weathers a stormy senior year

Not many undergraduate students put their fields of study to use before graduating, but Jillian Robillard (Marine Entrepreneurship, ’20) has found a way — and she is succeeding.

In the past year, Robillard has started an entire business related to her major, Southern Maine Crabs, LLC/Green Bait, which buys crabs from fishermen along the Maine coast and sells them to wholesalers for profit. 

Robillard’s latest product, Green Bait, has found her success. The product, a new lobster bait formula, presents an innovative solution to one of the most pervasive issues facing the marine economy today: the European green crab. 

The crabs, an invasive species, feed on clam beds and have been linked to the decline of the soft-shell clam industry. Worse, due in part to climate change, populations of the crabs continue to rise in Maine and New England. They often crop up in lobster traps as bycatch and, because fishermen cannot legally toss them back in the ocean, they are simply killed and discarded. 

Robillard saw the problem as an opportunity to grow her existing business while preserving the environment and saving Maine jobs. To create the bait, she buys the unwanted crabs from fisherman. She then processes them into a proprietary bait blend that she can sell back to those lobster fishermen at a reduced price.

With Green Bait, Robillard has scored Robillard the chance to win $25,000 from the “Greenlight Maine” Collegiate Challenge, a televised competition that pits college students’ business ideas against each other, providing a chance to win the grand prize money to help kickstart their business ventures.

The show is part of the broader, statewide “Greenlight Maine” collaboration of entrepreneurial catalysts and corporate leaders, designed to promote and mentor the development and growth of business in the state — and, on March 17, Robillard found out she is a finalist for the prize.

“It feels great to be a finalist in ‘Greenlight Maine,’ not only for myself but for both the UNE community and the fishing community,” Robillard said.

The news was a beacon of hope in an otherwise unsettling time. With most UNE undergraduate courses now being held online in the wake of the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic, the Eliot, Maine, native has had to adapt her learning techniques to accommodate her new schedule — all the while navigating the challenges of running a small business during an economic shock.

“At first, it was hard because many of our wholesalers have laid off their employees,” Robillard said. “But we’ve actually found a way to sell crabs and lobsters off our dock in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, while keeping social distancing guidelines. It’s nice to be able to provide the community with some food and give back to people who might not have any food otherwise.”

For Robillard and hundreds of other graduating UNE students, the move off campus has come with much uncertainty. As of now, it is still unknown whether or not Commencement exercises will be held on time, or if the myriad other activities planned for Senior Week will occur. 

“For us not being able to finish our very last semester of college is kind of bittersweet,” Robillard said. “But it’s not all about us — there are bigger fish to fry.”

Robillard encouraged people to check in on their neighbors during this trying time and to offer help where they can. She said she is fortunate that her family is healthy and comfortable when many are not as lucky.

And, if all goes as planned, on May 17, Robillard will travel to the studio at the New England School of Communications at Husson University for the final taping of “Greenlight Maine.” 

There, she will face off against the other two final business ventures: Easy Eats, a technology-based platform that provides dorm-door food delivery service to college students, and Ferda Farms, an oyster farm in Brunswick, Maine, that focuses on sustainability, innovation, and education within the industry.

There, she hopes to show the judges her roots and how invasive species and climate change can have negative impacts on not just the lobster industry, but also on commercial trucking and Maine’s entire shellfish economy.

But until that day comes, Robillard is keeping a positive outlook. 

“This is monumental for all of us. Looking at the health aspect of this, it is pretty scary, but overall I think people will start to think about what we can do for the greater good,” she said. “We might look back and think about what we should have done differently, but I think a lot of positive will come out of this.”