It's been a while since my last update on the Maine lobster fishing season. The topline report is that, though the price per pound is down, the volume of lobster being caught in Maine is very good this year. As my mother wrote in an email last week:
"It has been a busy week on the water for the men. The fishing has been really good. They are finishing up on the trawls today and plan to haul back tomorrow and Friday, weather permitting. Yeah, another good thing is the price went UP 15 cents!! We are pleased with the good catches. Yesterday they had a lot to band at the end of the day... It is a lot of work...I'm sure they are all beat at the end of the day."
A true fisherman never discloses how exactly how much lobster he's catching to other fishermen, especially when he's doing well. This is partly because a fisherman needs to protect his fishing territory. While our town's fishermen tend to fish in roughly the same areas, and experience the same fluctuations in catch, there are always certain hot spots throughout the season. If you can discover a hot spot, you try to keep it quiet so other fishermen don't start shifting their gear into that area.
The better the fishing, the less fishermen want to talk about the fishing. When the fishing is poor, most often through the spring and early summer, the fishermen are constantly on the VHF radio, complaining about "changing the water in their traps" (a joke way of saying they're not catching any lobsters). If the fishing is really, really poor, a fisherman may even get specific about his catch, saying he hauled twenty traps for just one counter.
However when the lobster fishing starts to pick up, talk on the VHF starts to die down and when questioned about their catch, lobster fishermen will be very, very vague. For example, if you ask a fisherman how well he did on the North Shoal this week he might say "Oh, a little better than last week" which doesn't mean much, as he'll never say how much he caught last week!.
Beyond basic competitiveness, I think there's an overall sense of modesty amongst fishermen, at least around where I live. You never want to appear like you're doing too well. Even though I don't suppose most people from my town will read this blog, I try to be quite cautious about what I say with regards to the lobster catch. I've actually gone over this post quite a few times, editing out different details and cutting down on the quote from mother's email to ensure I don't disclose anything of which my family and/or town would disapprove.
To read the latest updates on the Maine lobster fishing season, click here.
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