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These
two views of our favorite meal in Maine don’t look all that appetizing here do
they.
The History
of Lobstering
As I was researching for
another project, I came across a subject I thought you might enjoy, the history
of lobstering. I doubt that the lobster fishermen in the old neighborhood of
the South End were too concerned about the history of their avocation. They
were more interested in repairing the wooden lobster pots stacked up in their
yards or repainting their buoy markers so they could get back out to haul. (By the way, for you non-Mainers, “out to
haul” means they have to haul the traps onboard. Today that is done mostly by
motor-driven winch devices onboard.) They also had to worry about Maine
state laws governing their lobster harvest; lobster wars; the weather; and a
decent price for their catch.
Lobstering is a hard
labor-intensive job. You have to be a hardy person to handle it. Most of the
licenses along our part of Maine are handed down from father to son; otherwise
you may have a hard time obtaining one. I might also add that some women have
gone out to haul as well. I know of at least one Sea Goddess who falls into
that category. Can’t remember her name at the moment, but she probably wasn’t
the only participant of the Maine Sea Goddess Pageant who pursued that work.
Young lobstermen and
women often start out in the business working out of a dory and hauling in
their lobster traps by hand. Not an easy task.
So how did we go from
using lobsters for bait and to feed children, prisoners and indentured servants
to shipping our product all over the world as a favored delicacy? At one point,
indentured servants in Massachusetts, who exchanged their passage to the new
world for seven years of service to their sponsors, rebelled, and had their
contracts state that they wouldn’t have to eat lobster more than three times a
week. Imagine that!
The first reported
“harvesting” of lobster was reported by James Rosier, of Captain George
Weymouth’s crew. In 1605 on a voyage to Maine, Rosier wrote: “And towards night
we drew a small net of twenty fathoms very nigh the shore; we got about thirty
very good and great lobsters…which I omit not to report, because it sheweth how
great a profit fishing would be…”
It’s possible that this
early account established lobster fishing as the oldest, continuously operated
industry on the North American continent. Today Maine is the largest
lobster-producing state in the nation.
Lobsters were so
plentiful that they were harvested by hand along the shore in the early 1800s.
As an increase in demand came from the Boston and New York markets, “smackmen”
appeared on the coast. These first boat-related lobster fishermen were so
called because their small sailing vessels were called “smacks.”
The next big development
came with the development of the cannery industry. Preserving live lobsters to
be shipped elsewhere was a big problem. In 1836, Maine began to can lobster.
Beginning in Eastport, canneries eventually extended down as far as Portland.
The problem was that the endeavor was so successful that they had to begin
using smaller and smaller lobsters in their canning operations to meet the
demand.
The collapse of the
canning industry, therefore, was then taken over by the fresh lobster industry.
They began preserving lobsters in lobster pounds, the first one appearing on
Vinalhaven in 1875.
The pounds made it
possible to wait for better prices and to allow the molting lobster to grow a
new shell and have it harden. Pounds became the backbone of the industry.
Smackmen were replaced
in the 1930s by local, land based buyers who were the link between the
harvesters and the public. Buyers purchased lobsters from a harvester who in
turn bought fuel, bait, and other necessary items from the buyer. The local
buyer either sold the lobsters to people who came to the pound to buy them or
to regional dealers who sent the lobsters out-of-state. This system still
exists today.
Lobstering was and still
is a hard way to make a living. If
lobstermen can manage to make a living and put food on their family’s table,
they are lucky. Today they have metal pots so they don’t have to repair the
wooden ones all the time; and they have plastic foam buoy markers which are
easier to handle and are easier to keep up. The lobster fishermen who go out to
haul these days are sure appreciated by this writer at least.
In recent years laws
have been developed to allow non-commercial harvesting of lobsters. I’m not so
sure that is such a good idea and probably goes against the craw of a licensed
lobsterman when he comes upon such a “lobsterman.” Leave it to the
professionals I say. They have to make a living after all. Do they intrude on
your place of business?
So there you have it.
This information came mostly from the Maine Department of Marine Resources
site. More interesting information can be found there as well as the biology of
the lobster itself; laws; and other information important to lobster fishermen
today. Go to:
Thanks for listening.
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