THE history of Maine lobsters starts with James Rosier, who chronicled the Waymouth expedition of 1605. Near Burnt Island in Muscongus Bay, Rosier reported, “With a small net…very nigh the shore, we got about thirty very good and great Lobsters.” In the old days, lobstering was child’s play. Haul a net or lean over the side of the boat and gaff the lobsters in shallow water. Or wade along the shore and catch them with your hands, as the Indians did.
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Four-foot lobsters were not uncommon, and they grew even larger. In 1858, Robert Carter dropped a hook over the side in Pulpit Harbor, got it tangled in the tail of a lobster, and pulled in a 12-pounder. Sometimes storms would drive ashore windrows of lobsters, which were used as fertilizer.
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For a long time there was no lobster industry, because anyone could catch all he wanted for himself. After 1750, city folk in Boston and New York created a small market, but simple methods of catching them still sufficed. A century later, the French invention of canning changed the world of lobsters forever. The first lobster cannery was established in Eastport around 1843, and by 1880 there were 23 lobster canneries in the state of Maine shipping lobsters throughout the United States and even overseas.
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As demand increased, so did the sophistication of the lobster fishery. The simple hoopnet trap was replaced by the wooden lobster pot, with a net funnel and a stone to hold it down. These were dumped over the side from rowing boats and hauled by hand. Sailing boats evolved for lobstering, such as the Muscongus Bay sloops, and fishermen could range farther afield to tend their traps. Then engines were developed, providing power to go long distances and haul traps in deep water.
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Now the rounded wood-slat lobster pot is rapidly being replaced by rectangular wire traps. They stack better, are less susceptible to rot and worm, and last longer. Disintegrating panels that release their catch after a period of time have been invented for the wire trap, so lost traps, or “ghost traps,” as they are called, won’t continue to attract and kill lobsters.
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Wooden lobsterboats are being replaced, in part, by fiberglass. Their bridges are loaded with Loran, GPS, bottom plotters, and radar to make it easier for the lobsterman to find his catch, his traps, and his way home.
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The surge in demand, which began in 1850, had another result. The average size of lobsters started to drop immediately, and lobsters became scarcer.
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In 1887, there were about 2,000 lobstermen hauling 109,000 traps by hand for a total catch of almost 22 million pounds. A century later, lobstermen fished two million traps and caught the same poundage.
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But the value of lobsters has steadily increased, and the number of lobstermen and traps has kept pace. Maine issues about 7,000 lobster licenses a year, and of those perhaps 3,000 are full-time lobstermen. Altogether, nearly three million traps are fished in Maine waters. With such unparalleled pressure on the resource, scientists predicted an imminent population crash.
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To the surprise of nearly everyone in the late 1980s and early 1990s, however, Maine lobstermen began to catch more and more lobsters. In each of the last several years, the fishery has reached epic proportions, with almost 57 million pounds landed in 2000—easily double the catch of any of the years through the late 1970s. With so much fishing, is the lobster resource healthy? Or is it on the verge of collapse?
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All this has led to regulation. Sometimes it is self-regulation. In Monhegan, lobstering is prohibited on Sundays in summertime, and is limited to daylight hours. The number of traps a lobsterman can set was first limited to 1,200 traps; now it’s down to 800. Entry into the fishery is limited, too. Fishermen must serve two-years as apprentices and must wait for a certain number of lobstermen to retire in their coastal zone before they are issued licenses.
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The lobsterman himself hasn’t changed much. Still fiercely independent, he goes out when he wants and wrests a living from the sea in winter and summer. He takes great pride in his boat, his self-reliance, and his ability to feed his family. He complains about the price of lobsters at the co-op, and the cost of fuel. He worries about overfishing and declining lobster stocks, and too many part-timers getting lobster licenses. He sees seals as lobster thieves. He gets angry about mussel-draggers and scallopers spoiling good lobster grounds. He doesn’t much like all the regulations and the “Gummint Fishcrats,” as Captain Perc Sane calls them. But he hopes it will work out all right, and keeps on doing what he’s best at—pulling lobsters from the bottom.
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Trap Day is January 1, and by agreement, the lobstermen close the season at the end of June. More often it is government regulation. Every lobsterman carries a brass gauge, called a “measure,” to check the minimum carapace length for “keepers.” Any lobster that measures less than 3 5&Mac218;16 inches is a “short,” and the maximum is 5 inches. Any female with eggs (berried) must be “V-notched” on the tail flipper and tossed back in. The fines for having either shorts or berried lobster on board are heavy.
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Lobsters hatch from eggs and start life as tiny larvae floating near the surface of the ocean. After several days they molt, a process of shedding the old shell and developing a new and larger one. After another few weeks, they molt again, getting a little larger and more complex each time. A lobster may molt seven times in its first year. By the time it has reached a one-pound size, the lobster will molt only once a year. Rather astonishingly, when it molts, a lobster leaves its shell intact, claws and all.
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Adult lobsters molt, or “shed,” at times partly determined by seawater temperatures. Off Long Island, New York and Massachusetts, shedders are common in June; in Maine you’ll find shedders in July along the southern coast and in August farther east. The price for shedders is less than for hard-shell lobsters because they have less meat per pound of lobster, but some say that shedder meat is sweeter.
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At the end of the day, the lobsterman heads back in and unloads his catch at a lobster car moored in the harbor or at the floats of the co-op. The catch is weighed, and he is given credit at the going rate. Then the lobsters are sorted by size into the compartments of the float filled with seawater, waiting for retail customers or for shipment to wholesale customers such as restaurants. When prices are low, lobsters are often kept in lobster pounds (large enclosures), waiting for an upturn in demand.
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There are several places along the coast of Maine where you can visit displays about different aspects of lobstering including the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, the Department of Marine Resources Aquarium in Boothbay, the Ira C. Darling Center on the Damariscotta River, and the Mount Desert Oceanarium in Southwest Harbor. Rockland’s lobster festival on the first weekend of August serves up ten tons of lobsters. And in many harbors there are lobstermen who will take you out to observe how traps are hauled.PLEASE RESPECT AND SUPPORT THE WORK THAT HAS
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The Lobster Conservancy with a real-time lobster cam.

Maine Department of Marine Resources

Maine lobstering rules and regulations

Navigating with lobster buoys

Snagging lobster buoys forum topic

Maine lobsterboat racing

Video of lobster fishing off Bunker Harbor