Tommy has been doing engine work to the Arethusa all summer long along with other repairs. He had been lobstering out of a lobster boat half it’s size which meant he couldn’t shift lobster traps the way a true lobsterman would to follow the lobsters around. With a boat like the Arethusa you can put a good amount of gear aboard and shift teh gear according to what the lobsters are doing.
There’s a saying in the lobster industry I heard my father say when I was much younger but it has stuck with me. There are “lobstermen” who fish the gear and move the traps around to maximize their catch. Then there are “pot haulers” who simply dump the lobster lobster traps back in the same spots and don’t move the gear around to maximize their catch according to lobster movement patterns.
Tommy Burns is a “lobsterman” and he is now back to lobstering.
Tommy Burns’ Arethusa Back Lobstering, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
Alicia
blackswanbeth
Joanne
Paul F. Frontiero Jr.
Marty Luster
Craig Kimberley
Ed Collard
Sharon
Kim Smith
Fr Matthew Green
patrickr
Paul Morrison & RD
Manuel F. Simoes
S.D. Kelly
Thom Falzarano
So why does moving the traps around help maximize a catch?
At certain times according to lobster molting patterns or water temperatures or weather the lobsters move to different types of bottom -sandy, muddy, rocky. When you can only move 10 or 20 traps at a time you cannot effectively place the traps in position to take advantage of those movements.
Hmm… I’m still a little confused. I guess that I assumed all lobster buoys had traps on them but it sounds like this is not the case. Is this because of some sort of regulations on the number of traps you can have down or does it just not make sense to add wear and tear to the traps if there will be no lobsters on it in that season?
Let me try again because I’m obviously not explaining it properly.
If you have a tiny boat you can only move a tiny number of traps at a time. With a bigger boat you can mobilize your traps all at once and move them to set them in a place where you anticipate the lobsters to be according to patterns including variables such as water temperature, ocean conditions and molting. If you can’t redeploy your lobster traps in the places where the lobsters will be because it takes too much time to move a small amount of gear at a time because the tiny boat can only hold a small number of traps you won’t be able to set the traps where they need to be to catch the lobsters.
If you have a larger boat with a good amount of deck space you can haul the gear and put a good number of traps aboard and then set it in a different spot according to where you believe the lobsters to be.
Is that any less confusing?
He cracks me up. Tommy Burns is not just a lobsterman, he may be the quintessential lobsterman. Talking to him is always enlightening…. sort of….
Very good. One question talking about molting. I know they come more inshore when the water warms up but what about molting. Do they move to any particular place to do that. I would think when they’re inshore then they molt inshore. But what about offshore lobstering? I wish Lobster Wars would come back on. Nice boat.