Where do we fish?
We fish out of Stonington Harbor, Maine's largest lobstering port. Here's a section of Jane Crozer's lovely-to-view map of Penobscot Bay to Schoodic Point.
We fish Merchant's Row, down to where East Penobscot Bay meets Isle au Haut Bay, to below the Western Head. Typically, we talk about fishing "Above" and "Below"- Above refers to Merchants Row/E. Penobscot Bay, and Below refers to Isle au Haut Bay.
Maine law allows only for owner/operator lobster fishing, which means that each boat is independently owned and operated- no big business allowed. When I refer to "the fleet," I am not talking Tyson Foods and the boats they own and operate outside of our state waters, I am talking about the men and women who fish out of Stonington and Isle au Haut.
Talk about the boat- surely she has a name?
Yes. Dave's boat is the Sure Thing, a 37' Repco, that was just totally rebuilt in the spring of 2013, by my bio-dad, who is a boat builder over in Winter Harbor. Dad is a princess about boat design, and he wouldn't let Dave keep his West-Coast style wheel house. Here's a picture post-rebuild:
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| At her mooring in Stonington. |
How many traps do you fish?
Our lobster zone, Zone C, has an 800 trap limit per license, which means you can fish a maximum of 800 traps. On a typical day you may haul through 180-300 traps, depending on your goal for the day. Days you break down and have to go in early, or the weather is shitty and you turn back, you clearly fish less than that...
How do you remember where you put them?
Dave always says that setting out a trap is basically like sending a Ben Franklin note to the bottom- you are going to remember where you put that money. Seriously- gear represents quite a bit of capital.
Our bays do not have the sandy bottom of Cape Cod, or even Casco Bay. A lot of it is rocky/craggy. Primo bottom for lobster, but not primo for trawls. Further to the south, many people fish in trawls, up to ten traps to a trawl. Inside(closer to the coast and islands), where we fish, most people fish pairs- two traps on the bottom, connected to one buoy at the top. Traps are organized into strings: five pairs to a string (doing the math, that means ten traps a string, five buoys). On the butt end of each buoy you mark a symbol per string and a number, 1-5. One string might be (optimistically) labeled $1, $2, $3, $4, $5. The next might be *1,*2, *3, etc... This way, instead of seeing 800 anonymous buoys in your colors, there is order. You know where you left off the other day, you can tell when traps have gone missing, you can compare haul to haul how a certain string is fishing.
Also, Dave's been fishing for over 20 years- He's got an intimate knowledge of the geography of the area, and the underwater topography. So bless him, he's the one who remembers where he put them. I am the one making up nautical puns and spoofs of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" in the back of the boat.
How many lobsters do you generally get?
Ha!!! It varies depending on season, and which traps we are fishing. In winter/spring you may fish 250 traps for 65lbs of lobster, and in the summer you may fish the same gear for over 1,000lbs. What I can tell you is that in Maine, the landing laws were created by the fisherman- it is open season year round, but there are strict rules about what you can and cannot keep. Maine has both undersize and oversize limits- no picking on the kids who haven't had a chance to make more kids, and no keeping the giants who are serious breeders. If it is the size of a beagle, it is going back over the side. Also, no keeping a female who's extruded her eggs and is keeping them on her tail. Even a single tiny egg left on the tail means a heavy fine. Also, if you catch an egger, and she's not already notched to indicate she's been empirically proven as a breeder, you make a V notch in a specific flipper. V notch females are illegal to land. Given all of these rules, it is very possible- and often it happens- that you pull up a trap that is chock full of lobsters- and you can't keep a single one. In the height of the summer season though, sometimes they stack up in the banding box like cordwood.
Dude, since gender is important to the landing laws, how do you sex a lobster?
Look at their bits, under their bodies:
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| See the blue bits at the center of the photo? Lobster lady bits. Next you'd need to check for eggs, a notch, and length of carapace. |
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| See how the lobster bits at the center of this photo are angled back? Boy bits. Also, the male tail tends to be narrower because it doesn't need to carry eggs. As long as a male lobster is within the size limits, it is a keeper. |
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