Lobstah

Maine and lobster, lobster and Maine are hard linked, joined at the hip, inseparable.

Until recently, Maine auto license plates bore the lobster symbol. Drive across the bridge on Interstate 95 from Portsmouth into Kittery and one of the first sights you behold is a large, red lobster symbol emblazoned on a white industrial tank. Indeed, if these decapods could speak, we assume it would be with a Maine accent.

Lobster and Maine have a love affair that goes way back; they have a history.

Before any European set foot on the rocky coast we now call Maine, the natives were having lobster bakes. Back then they preferred their lobster baked or broiled rather than the now popular, boiled.

In the late 18th century European settlers discovered the lobster. The tasty critters were easily caught: one needed only wade about in shallow water among the rocks and scoop them up, being careful not to lose a finger to the large crusher claw.

As plentiful as they were, there was a problem: unless cooked and eaten almost immediately lobster meat decays very quickly. It can't be dried, nor can it be salted. The early lobstermen had such a surplus that they began using lobster for fertilizer. Luckily for those neophyte Maine lobstermen (not so for the lobsters) the ladies and gentlemen of Boston were acquiring a taste for the hard-shelled creatures.

In 1835 Captain John Smith had six smacks (sloop rigged boats) fitted with tanks for a cargo of live lobster and began regular runs between Harpswell, Maine and Boston, Massachusetts. In 1841 Captain Elisha Smith recorded that he made ten trips between Vinalhaven and Boston, transporting a total of 35,000 pounds of lobster.

As the market grew, canneries began to spring up along the coast. William Underwood began canning lobster in Harpswell in 1844. George Burnham and Samuel Rummery began canning corn and lobster in Portland during the years 1852-57.

By 1880 no fewer than 23 coastal factories were busy canning lobster and other seafood products. Only the tails and claws of the lobster were used. The remaining portions were sold for fertilizer or pig feed. In 1879 the Red Beach Plaster Company began operations in Eastport, where they converted lobster shells into plaster.

In 1854 a full cargo for a Boston bound smack consisted of approximately 1200 lobsters. By 1880 this number increased to 8000. That same year, 1880, found canneries employing 800 to 1000 fishermen to supply the skyrocketing demand.

The part-time lobsterman, fishing from a pea pod (a rowboat with a pointed bow at each end) or on foot, gave way to the full time lobsterman, using newly invented lobster traps. The boats became larger, employing mast and sail for power. Fifty lobster traps were considered the manageable limit.

As demand increased so did prices. In 1862 lobster fetched forty to fifty cents per hundred weight. Lobsters weighing in at four to five pounds were considered small and those of two pounds and under were thrown away. As late as 1890, lobsters weighing in at less than three pounds were considered half a lobster.

In 1880 smack owners paid between four and five cents for a two-pound lobster while the canneries bought up the smaller specimens for one cent per pound. By 1887 the price paid by the smacks increased to three to four cents per pound and then skyrocketed to ten cents per lobster in the decade between 1890 and 1900. By 1906 the price had climbed to twenty-five cents per pound!

The new lobster market took off, but the lobstermen, in spite of the higher prices, were not seeing an increase in their incomes. In 1870 a man could make a decent living tending fifty traps. By 1880 the same man required seventy-five traps to maintain the same income. Something was wrong.

To understand what was happening consider the lobster life cycle:

As a lobster grows its shell remains the same size. When the shell becomes too cramped the lobster sheds it and grows a new, roomier model. It soon grows into the new shell, becomes cramped and so must repeat the cycle.

Female lobsters (hens) mate soon after shedding, while still soft. She may carry the male'ss (cock's) sperm around with her for up to twelve months before deciding to lay anywhere from five thousand to more than one hundred thousand green-black eggs. Today if a female is caught while carrying eggs the lobsterman will classify her a "breeder" by notching her tail. This new "breeder" is set free and may never be harvested by anyone.

The eggs, once released by the female, hatch in a day or two. As the infant lobster, about a third of an inch in length, begin their lives, they swim about near the surface feasting on plankton while trying to survive every eating thing above, upon and in the sea.

The new lobsters molt (shed) three times in the first two weeks of their lives and then head for the bottom to hide and grow. Today's legal size lobster requires around twenty-five molts or five to seven years of survival.

During this time they eat crabs, eelgrass, snails worms, mussels and occasionally each other. Only one percent survives to reach adulthood. Of the surviving one-percent lobstermen capture ninety-percent the first year. It is a major miracle that we have any lobster at all.

In 1872, faced with a diminishing supply, the first of many regulations was passed. It forbade the taking of females with eggs. Lobstermen at first ignored the regulation and simply scraped the eggs off the breeder.

The supply continued to diminish. More regulations were passed. Enforcement became severe. The increase in regulation and enforcement had an immediate, devastating impact upon the Maine canneries. Within a very short time most relocated to Canada where there was far less regulation.

In the next few years a marked increase in steamboat and rail transportation allowed Maine to more easily export lobster and brought even more tourists into the state to sample the native delight.

The demand for lobster continued to grow. More traps were set by more lobstermen.

In 1889 2000 lobstermen harvested 25,000,000 pounds in 121,000 traps (an average of 206.6 pounds per trap, 12,500 pounds per man). By 1898 3100 lobstermen harvested 17,500,000 pounds in 156,000 traps (an average of 112 pounds per trap, 5645 pounds per man).

In the course of time the lobster population leveled off. No one seems to know the exact reason why it should or why it did although there has been no shortage of theories put forth. Heated arguments between lobstermen and government regulators on this subject continue to this day.

Hi-tech entered the lobster fishery following World War II. Depth finders, radios, radar, nylon pot warp (rope) and heads (funnels through which the lobster enters the trap) and faster boats impacted the fishery and the lobsterman.

In 1970 wire traps were introduced as a replacement for the old wooden slat construction. Although slow to find acceptance with the lobstermen, the new traps slowly gained in popularity. With the new traps however, came a new problem: ghost traps.

A wooden trap, if lost to the sea, soon disintegrates. The new wire traps, when lost, just kept on trapping and trapping.

A solution was soon found. A replaceable, biodegradable panel was added to the wire trap. If the trap were lost the panel would soon disintegrate thus releasing any marine life trapped inside. Along with this biodegradable panel a special hatch which allows "shorts" to escape is also now required.

Today it seems there are so many traps in the water that one could walk across the marker buoys without getting one's feet wet. With so many traps it seems that the poor lobster doesn't stand a chance. But neither does the lobsterman. Today he competes with over 7000 men hauling 2,000,000 traps not to mention imports, which keep prices down while his operating costs continue to rise.

Gone are the romantic days when the lobsterman built his own spruce traps, knitted his own heads and hauled his 50 or 60 traps from a pea pod. Today he needs the latest technology, a fast boat and upwards of 700 traps. He must leave home before daylight and work until dark. He must keep the IRS happy. He must know and abide by countless fishing and Coast Guard regulations.

Lobstering today is a difficult, dangerous, labor intensive and capital intensive business. He and his family have been tending these "poverty boxes" for generations. But in a good year, if the prices are up and foul weather doesn't throw his pots and warp on some rocky beach in a hopeless ball of knots, he just might make a fair living.