lobstermen set their traps in areas they believe will attract lobsters

based on bottom structure and thermoclines, depth and currents.

For Rob Martin, the season kicked off a little sooner than for

fishermen in the outer Cape Cod. He went from catching a hundred

or so pounds a day to several hundred pounds by mid-July, but

overall the total catch and impact has been down over past years.

Rob goes out alone; captain and deck mate all in one. When he

reaches a string of traps marked by his buoy colors, he snags the

buoy and drags the line up to a motorized whench, raising the traps

up from the depths. One by one, he lifts each trap onto the deck and

removes the plethora of sea life from starfish and barnacles, to

finfish, crabs and, hopefully, lobsters, lots of them.

The rectangular design of the trap essentially includes a head, a

kitchen, a parlor and a vent. Lobsters and whatever, enter through

the knitted head scavenging for a sack of bait resting in the

“kitchen.” The knitted head makes it difficult to back up, so once

they enter and reach the bait, they are essentially trapped in a

knitted “parlor.” The vent is designed to allow any small lobsters and

sea critters a method of escape. Once on deck, the lobsters are sorted

by Rob. Any lobster whose carapace—the length from the eye

socket to the rear of the body shell—is over 3-1/4’’ is a keeper, unless

it is an obviously egging female. Aside from regulating the number

of traps in the water and licenses issued, maintaining a healthy

population of young females prevails as the primary regulation

measure in the lobster fisheries. Any females with eggs present

cannot be harvested; any small egger caught in the trap must be

marked by the lobsterman, who will carve a small “V” into the tip

of the tail. It will take a series of four or more molts over a couple

of years for the notch to disappear. Even without the presence of

eggs, any V-notched female must be thrown back. The number of

eggers can account for anywhere from 10 percent to 30 percent of

the lobsters caught. In shallower depths and closer to the shore

where females spend the majority of their summer months in more

protective waters, that ratio is even higher.

All keepers in the trap are affixed with claw bands and thrown into

an onboard saltwater holding tank. Various forms of bait from skate

and herring to odds and ends are refilled into the “kitchen” bag, and

Rob continues through his trawl of pots, removing and refilling.

Depending on the day, and the population of lobsters in a given

area, he will haul anywhere from 100 to 200 pots a day. Even

though the presence of lobsters may be felt strongly in the area as a

whole, they tend to migrate from food source to food source.

Objectively, lobstermen try to predict those areas, but there is little

rhyme or reason. Day in and day out, with various highs and lows, the lobsters

should remain steady throughout the rest of the summer. There

tends to be a bit of a lull in August and September in overall catch

volume, as the lobsters remain closer to shore following pockets of

food source. They’ve had several weeks to feed, molt, and mate. Fat

and happy, their movement and scavenging is not as fierce. In the

later months of fall, as the colder waters return, they will head back

to deeper, more temperature-stable waters. This tends to be the most

profitable time on the water. The proportion of hard shell lobsters

versus molting new shells is higher and more valuable; and the

percentage of egging females reduced.

For David and Rob Young, our lobstermen in Provincetown, their

day-to-day activities are much the same. Whereas Rob Martin in

Sandwich fishes solo, Dave and his brother each have their own boat

and license. Alternating between them, they fish together in the Outer Cape Area.

In the deeper waters around Race Point, regulations differ slightly with

regard to licensing and keepers commensurate with the ecology of that area.

The total number of traps in that area remains the same, so lobstermen trade amongst

themselves. The elevated currents are not as conducive to hatching and are

more treacherous for smaller lobsters. Therefore, the Outer Cape

lobsters tend to be larger and the minimum size of the carapace

for a keeper is a bit longer. The vent is also larger, allowing more small

lobsters to escape. In the Outer Cape area, the population of

egging females is lower as they opt for shallower waters, so lobstermen there can

keep females with a v-notch. This year, the lobsters hit late on the Outer Cape,

Rob and Dave did not really start fishing until the end of July. As I mentioned

in the summer, the cost of diesel has deeply impacted the bottom line for

fishermen and they are feeling the pinch. They hope the lobstering

from that point on stays strong until January, when they start

removing their trawls and prepare for next year’s cycle, take a deep

breath and reunite with their families for winter.

KEEPING AN EYE ON THE FISHERY

The primary regulatory agency overseeing the lobster industry is

the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. It monitors both

the lobster population with the help of various research institutes

and the activities of the men and women at sea. At the end of each

day, lobstermen fill out a catch report indicating where they went

and how many pounds they caught. GPS machines on board each

boat send out a signal so their movements can be recorded.

Essentially, they ensure that everyone is fishing within his or her

boundaries. For the thousands of boats among myriad fisheries,

there are extraordinarily few Environmental Police Officers (EPOs)

to keep an eye on the conduct of lobstermen at sea. They primarily

perform spot checks making certain the lobsters are legal, not

undersized and not eggers. Initial offenses receive fines, but habitual

abusers can loose their license. On the Outer Cape, EPOs check the

number of traps when they are out of the water in the winter. In

Cape Cod Bay, they make certain the traps are configured properly

to protect whales during prime migrations.

Despite the regulations and spot checks, the lobster population

remains in a slow decline. Rumbles of further trap allotment

restrictions trouble lobstermen as they continue to experience a

reduction in revenue. Bill Adler, Executive Director of the

Massachusetts Lobsterman Association (MLA) for 20 years and a

lifelong lobster expert, has seen these types of declines in the past.

The cause can be anything from over-fishing, toxins poured into the

sea from our rivers and cities, global warming and disease. The

industry on the whole in the Northeast is stable; fisheries in Canada

and Maine reported elevated catches this year due to the early onset

of warm waters. Therefore, the decline in the southern waters does

suggest over-fishing and disease as the culprits. At the MLA, Bill and

his staff work as the big brother intermediaries, protecting both the

fisheries and the livelihood of the lobstermen. They see industry

incentives and education as a method to promote cleaner fishing. To

members, they send out a weekly price/catch report and newsletters

with updated information. The reports indicate fishing levels across

the Northeast to help fishermen gauge the overall fishing viability in

certain areas and the average price at the dock. The MLA also

sponsored the new green lobster bands to help guide consumers

towards Massachusetts caught lobsters, which are caught using

practices that are not harmful to the whale population.

BRINGING THE PLAYERS TOGETHER

Aside from education and advocacy, the MLA along with a

consortium of other state based lobster associations, including The

Lobster Institute, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration, other marine research foundations and lobstermen all

along the coast, is participating in a multi-year, multi-faceted research

project known as eMOLT (Environmental Monitors on Lobster

Traps). Over the years, lobstermen have tried to determine the delicate

balance of water temperature, salinity and particulates, depth and

current that promotes movement in the lobster population. Some

have attempted to track such details on their own, but to little avail.

In the larval stage, before their shells have hardened, lobsters are

extremely susceptible to disease and toxicity. Since 2001, researchers

have affixed probes to thousands of traps, and free floating buoys to

transmit real-time wireless readings of various measures at sea. Since

2006, their database storage includes over 1.8 million hourly records

of temperature and 80,000 hourly records of salinity. Ultimately, the

goal is to use these data to develop any statistical relationships between

these measures, the health and drift of the larvae population and the

migration habits of the herd. The data are still being analyzed, but the

primary success of the project is the cooperation among researchers,

industry regulators and lobstermen to achieve the level of data they

now have.

For David Young and Rob Martin, the obstacles in the industry and

out at sea make every year during a downswing a bit more challenging.

But, they are diehard lifers. Uncertainty abounds in most professions;

for David the rush of a trap filled with lobsters compares to little else.

To date, the most he’s caught in one trap is 41 and he’s still hoping to

top that. As a member of the MLA, Rob feels like he has a forum to

participate in the evolution of the industry. He and his partner, Lori

Caron, take advantage of every opportunity to vocalize the issues faced

by the men at sea. “That is the hope for the future, efficiency and

research at sea, and somebody watching out for the little guy,”

commented Lori after a lobster association meeting in New

Hampshire. The next time you sit down for that $35.00 splurge on a

lobster meal at a restaurant on the Cape, think of the number of hands

and players that figure into each savory morsel; the long days at sea,

the care of transport for such a vulnerable species, and the chefs who

add one final flare of creativity. Eat slowly; the system is fragile.

Essentially, the engine of the industry rolls on, but indicators of a

decline in the health of lobster fisheries in Massachusetts and further

south have many concerned.

After 15 years of waiting tables through school and beyond, Chelsea Vivian now combines her

experience with food and her passion for protecting the environment by exploring the

connection between the Cape’s natural resources and the food we eat..sipping a little

wine along the way!