Maine lobstermen have plied their trade in much the same way for generations. The technology and efficiency has improved, however, from the days when men sailed in sloops and hauled up wooden traps hand over hand.
(There is a minority of women who operate lobster boats or work as crew members. They typically call themselves lobstermen, too.)
This summer, nearly 7,000 lobster boats will set about 3 million traps in Maine's coastal waters.
Although the number of traps and the modern equipment have helped bring in record numbers of lobsters in recent years, lobstermen still catch only the ones that crawl into their traps and they keep only a portion of those. The age-old method of trapping their catch allows lobstermen, more than other fishermen, to catch and throw back protected lobsters and babies or juveniles that will grow to market size.
Over the decades, Maine's lobstermen and state officials have developed rules to protect small lobsters, large lobsters and breeding female lobsters.
When lobstermen trap one with eggs attached to its abdomen, they make sure it has a notch cut into its tail and then drop it back overboard. Even after the lobster's eggs hatch, the notch means it must be thrown back and allowed to spawn again. A notch generally lasts through two spring shedding seasons.
Most lobstermen work within three miles of land, especially in the summer when large numbers of lobsters migrate toward the shore. The peak trapping season in recent years starts in early July and goes until November, when lobsters start to migrate offshore again. Some lobstermen haul traps year-round, going 10 to 20 miles of more offshore in winter.
THE BOAT
Lobster buoys:
Styrofoam floats are painted with different color combinations that are unique to every lobsterman identifying their traps.
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1) The captain is almost always the owner of the boat. Lobster boat captains in Maine traditionally have grown up in the business and even today are usually descended from fishermen.
2) Sternman is the formal title for the crew of a lobster boat, more often called "my helper" or "my man." MOst boats carry one sternman, although some have two and others have none.
3) The pot is a vinyl-covered wire trap that catches and holds lobsters. They can be three- or four-feet-long and are a baited and set on the ocean floor.
4) The hauler is a vinyl-covered wire trap that catches and holds lobsters. They can be three- or four-feet-long and are a baited and set on the ocean floor.
5) The boat is generally between 30 and 45 feet long, although it can be an open skiff with an outboard motor. Modern boats cost $200,000 or more, are most often made of fiberglass and usually have a semi-enclosed wheelhouse and a small cabin below.
6) Navigation: modern boats have radar, satellite positioning systems and computer programs that help captains quickly locate their traps and potential obstacles even if fog hides the shoreline.
AMERICAN LOBSTER (Homarus americanus)
Class: Crustacea
Appearance: American lobsters are brownish to greenish black and are identifiable becasue of their large claws.
Habitat: They prefer rocky or muddy substrate where they can create burrows for protection. They range from Labrador to North Carolina, with the heaviest concentration in the Gulf of Maine.
Food: Lobsters use their claws to catch mussels, crabs, fish and worms.
Growth: Lobster shed their exoskeletons in order to grow. Legal-size lobsters are about 5 to 7 years old and have molted 25 to 27 times.
Age and size: It's unknown how long lobsters can live, but the record for the largest documented lobsterbelongs to one taken off Nova Scotia in 1977. It weighed 44 pounds, six ounces and may have been 100 years old.
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"Keepers" are lobsters measuring between 3 1/4 inches and 5 inches from their eye socket to the end of the back shell, or carapice. They also cannot be carrying eggs or have a notch in their tail identifying breeding females. |
SETTING THE TRAP
 The "Pot" or lobster trap, has two "heads," or openings. A lobster enters the trap to eat the bait, usually salted herring. The shape of the openings allow entry, but prevent the lobster from backing out. The first compartment is called the kitchen. Lobsters also can venture into the last compartment, called the parlor, leaving the kitchen open for another hungry lobster. Lobstermen can fish with 600 or 800 traps, depending on where on the coast they are located. Traps are set and hauled on a cycle of about three days.
Trap trawl, is a series of traps strung together. Trap warp is the name of the line the connects the traps and the buoy. As many as eight or traps can be attached to one buoy, reducing the chance that a passing boat or ship will cut off a lobsterman's buoys.
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