Two big factors contributed to our reluctance to haul today: the weather, and our lack of confidence in the bait we’d set in our traps. It turned out, though, that we’re glad we did. Our efforts were rewarded well, in the form of 6 keepers, and our first encounter with an egg-bearing female lobster.
Here, I’m taking a look at the thousands of lobster eggs clinging to the underside of her tail:
In this next clip, B v-notches the lobster’s flipper. This will indicate to other lobstermen who might catch her when she is not bearing eggs that she is a productive breeder, and that they must, by law, release her to the wild.
In addition to the v-notching fun, we decided that it’s too early to draw conclusions
about our earlier bait strategy, because this successful yield was achieved with our now week long mix of bait. So it seems that maybe it’s not the age of the bait necessarily, but rather content of oil or some other element that dictates its attractiveness to lobsters.
Also noteworthy: we’ve noticed that several of our traps are consistently more productive than others, although it’s hard to say why at this point. Each of these is at a different depth, and in areas of varying densities of other traps, with what seem to be different bottom conditions.
By the way, females lobsters are called hens, and the dudes are called cocks, like chickens.
the haulress
the long hauler
