From One Lobsterman to Another: A Haunting Message

Oh, we read you LOUD and CLEAR.

In light of the recent flurry of reports about scuffles among area lobstermen, A.’s not willing to take any chances with his few remaining traps.

Episodes of violence among lobsterman have been especially intense this year. Record low market prices (lobsters were selling wholesale for $2.25-3.00 per pound, last I heard) for the second year in a row have put enormous strain on the traditional fishing industry. Violence came to a head recently in the well-publicized story of  Matinicus Island. This remote island 20 miles off the mainland with a year-round population of 51, according to the 2000 census, has some of the richest lobstering fields in the world. Tensions over turf rights on the island escalated to gunplay earlier this summer in July. Sixty-eight year old Vance Bunker shot Chris Young, 41,  in the neck — somehow managing not to mortally wound him.

The implicit code of territorial rights among lobsterman is no joke. Local fishing families do not hesitate to protect their turf, whether by cutting lines or even sinking the boats of competitors, as recently happened in another unrelated incident in the Mid-coast region. A more common practice is to send signals to the encroacher, signals such as leaving bottles in the traps or tying a knot in the buoy line.

Here’s a clip of A. last Friday deciphering the code:

A. has cause for concern and he’s not going to take any chances embroiling himself in a turf war.

More Sea Squirt Madness

There have been a lot of sea squirts on traps recently. Here’s one being encouraged to perform the pissing routine:

….. hahaaaa….  oh man. shiv cracks me UP

Aaaand we’re back. Again.

Back on the water tonight in a relatively short time frame. Thankfully the marine mechanic was able to sort out the latest motor problem in just a couple of days. Turns out that with all the rain, A. should have closed the vent on the gas tank. The 10% ethanol content in gasoline makes it much more susceptible to contamination by water, and the fact that the tank sat for nearly 3 weeks due to the

last mechanical failure made it separate out and go bad. This is a widely documented problem and is causing a stir among the albeit small boating community in some parts of the midwest, and elsewhere.  So, with a cleaned carburetor, fuel filter, fuel line, and a new tank of gas, we were back on the water (and $180 poorer)…

Still rebounding from that blow, it wasn’t long until we’d received another. This one from Hurricane Bill who evidently swept away a number of our traps over the previous weekend. We’reboth down to ONLY TWO TRAPS apiece. Serious bummer.

We’re now faced with a critical decision. Should we replace the lost traps?  Get reissued tags? And keep aggressively fishing the remaining 4 or so weeks of the season?

Honestly, our sponsor (i.e., our wallet) is  threatening to pull the plug on this less than lucrative operation.  The latest cost-per-lobster analysis was a wake up call, for sure.

Leaving that decision for another day, onto the catch… We only caught two shorts tonight, although the by-catch was stellar. We found a pair of crabs sharing an intimate moment (does this count as pornography?), as well as a couple hermit crabs, and two eel-looking fish. Anyone have any ideas as to what this is (above)?

It’s Not Looking Good, My Friends…

Motor troubles have seriously thrown our cost trajectories. Not long ago, we were down to 15 bucks a lobster, but the trend we thought was inevitably sloping downward has reversed. After three weeks out of the water with zero new catch and 480 bucks in motor repairs, we’ve jumped up 10 whole dollars per lobster.

This is very unfortunate. If our goal had been to reach some semblance of market value, where lobsters are selling for $6.99-7.99, then we would have needed to get down to an estimated cost basis of around $8 or $9 per lobster.  That goal, I’m afraid, is slipping out of reach quickly.

See the Balance Sheet for itemized expenses.

Look Familiar?

@#$”%^!!#$@&#!!*&@#!*%$#!*@!Aaaarrrggh….. You have got to be kidding me….

It was the same picture not long ago!

Area man suspects fugly sea gunk as culprit

Hard times inspire bold theories.  We got nothing last night.  A couple crabs, one short, one starfish. Nothin’.

Since leaving the traps out for three weeks, they’ve been covered in a rainbow assortment of sea crud, including: a leopard patterned sea sponge, bright orange/red algal goop, tiny mussels, furry seaweed masses, and everyone’s favorite, sea squirts. Could this sea gunk be the culprit?  Is it putting off the lobsters?

Updated: Pot Locations/Casco Bay

When we first put them in, readers may remember, we dropped our pots off the northwestern coast of Great Diamond Island.  Over the course of the last month or so, we’ve gradually migrated them northward toward Cow Island, finding the catch more reliable along the rocky ledge there.

Cow Island is not without its risks however. The shelted cove off the western side of Cow is home to a mooring field favored by local day-trippers, a “cocktail cove” they call it. My recent loss of two traps from that area is evidence enough of the risks.

New Fugly Bycatch

Here’s a clip showing our first encounter with the latest mystery bycatch. This time it’s some sort of clear jelly nugget blob that urinates on its enemies. ha!

Call it a sea slug? A sea cucumber? A sea squirt? Or what? Does ANYONE know what these little jelly nuggets are?… Or have we unknowingly stumbled across a NEW SPECIES??

Update: Never mind. Forget it. I think it’s just some common invertebrate, something called Ascidia callosa or something from the Ascidia genus anyway. BOORing. Page 30 of this technical report from NOAA detailing flora and fauna from the eastern US mentions them — documented off Mt Desert Island in the 19th century (whatever). They kind of looked like this and a little like this.

… No longer a mystery, but still definitely gross.

Pogie Style

Our readers may remember that just before all this motor failure transpired, we’d switched to a new bait fish: menhaden, also known as pogies.  So for the last three and a half weeks a bucket of pogies has been rotting in my basement.  Needless to say, they smelled pretty rank yesterday when we went to bait the traps.

Pogies are a larger, rounder fish than the herring we’d previously been using, so the technique for baiting a trap with them is slightly different.  Whereas the herring just get stuffed into a bait bag and the bait bag is strung up in the trap, the pogies are too big to fit in the bags.  Instead, you have to get all gory and string them through the eyes socket.  A dedicated fishermen will use a special tool for this, called a bait iron or bait needle, but we kept it real with the ever-handy pocket knife.

Here’s A. demonstrating how it’s done:

Toward the end of the video, you’ll also witness the sea squirt things discharging on us.  So rude.

BACK in the SADDLE

… And we’re back!

We FINALLY went out last night after almost a MONTH.  The motor is running better than ever, but I feared that I’d lost my lobstering groove. In the end it was an eventful evening.  Highlights included: three big keepers; two lost traps; spearing rotting POGIES through the eye with a swiss army knife; and a lot of new weird bycatch.  Fun fun fun.

Having left the pots in the water unattended since July 25 (!), we had no idea what we might haul up from the sea floor.  As it turned out, the bycatch was PHEnomonal.  First off, the trap lines were covered with baby mussels. The traps themselves were covered with something comparable to sea squirts, but we don’t know what they actually are — clear, jelly-like lumps, affixed to the metal grating of the traps. After a short while out of the water, these nubby creatures would contract suddenly, pissing out mystery juice in a strong stream (seriously ew). Then there were a couple starfish; six or so large north atlantic whelk, which was a new find for us. AND the prized bycatch of the day — a flounder!

OO I almost forgot to mention.  There were a few other noteworthy encounters last night.  One was a crab that was embracing another smaller crab, holding it like a football into his chest.  See pic above.  He held on strong, running across the trap and the floor of the boat with the smaller guy held into him, wouldn’t let go. Was the baby crab dinner?  Was it a younger brother? A sole mate?  A play thing?

AND it was interesting that each of the keepers we hauled was in the parlor section of the trap, and they were all BIG fallas too. We surmised that if they were stupid enough to get stuck in the traps for up to three weeks, then they must have been good fighters too, holding court in there.

Our theory was supported by what we found in the last trap: the empty shell of a lobster that looked like it had been well ripped to pieces.   Here’s a photo of the loser on the left and the “winner” on the right — relatively speaking, of course…

Here’s some footage of A. with the flounder too…

Anyone know a good marine mechanic?

Unfortunately the boat has been out of the water for over a week now with engine trouble. Just can’t get it started, and have had trouble booking time with a mechanic to get it sorted out. If anyone knows a qualified mechanic who is available to work on a 1987 Mariner 20 hp 2-stroke ASAP, let us know!

Update: A. has been stood up by various marine mechanics! They won’t return his calls! Additionally, the nagging question persists — WHEN WE DO FIND A MECHANIC should whatever it costs to fix the motor be factored into our expenses?? The motor was probably due for a breakdown anyway, right? Regardless of our lobstering endeavors this summer, wasn’t it?? :p