Another Hauling Day - August 5, Wednesday

Today, was another working day. We hauled traps and we got finished pretty early, at about 12:30 A.M. Today, we didnt have any bait bags ready, so i had to fill bait bags along with banding the lobsters and hauling the traps. It was constant work, i usually never had time for a break. It was work, and i was tired after we got done. I felt a little sick throughout the day, but i just kept my mind busy so i didnt think about being sick. The smell of the fish was what got to my head the most. I needed some fresh air sometimes.

The most lobsters that we got in a trap today, was 12. We hauled 100 traps today, and got about 550  LBS. My Uncle Art, has about 500 traps out there as of right now. We keep bringing new traps out each day, and he says he wants to get 650 traps out there. He says that a good trap, costs 80$. Some of the traps that he has, are really good, they are black and orange and they are really well put together. The lobster traps work so that the lobsters can crawl inside of the trap, but then they can not escape. There are entries that go into the trap, and the entries are elevated so the lobster drops a little when he enters the trap, but then he cant escape.

One thing that i noticed about the lobsters, is that, on the inside part of their claws, they have little white bumps that are like feelers, so if anything touches the inside of their claw, they will clamp down and try to get whatever was there. If a lobsters claw wont close, i touch the inside of their claw really quick with the bander, so that it will close and i can put a rubber band on it. Lobsters go through a process called sheeding. Lobsters shed their shells, and it takes about a half an hour for them to do so. After they have shedded their shells, the lobsters are incredibly soft, and you can not pick them up or it will hurt them. It takes about an hour for it to form a new shell. We got a lobster that just shed its shell in one of our traps today.

The left, is the lobsters shell that it shed, and to the right, is the new lobster, that is very soft, and we had to through it back, because it was so soft and very, very fragile.

Learn more about sheeding: Lobster Shedding in a Nutshell



Here is a picture of me, holding a giant crab that came up in one of our traps today!

-August 5, Wednesday

Hauling day - August 4, Tuesday

Today, we just did the normal thing, and hauled traps. We got about 700 LBS. of lobster at the end of the day.  We got so much, that we needed to switch to putting the lobster inside of a smaller crate because the lobster holder was already full. The beginning of the day, was a little weak with getting lobsters, we didn't get that many per crate. After that, we started to get better, and better, and better! At one time we got a lobster trap that had 14 lobsters inside it! Then, the next one had 13! I was banding lobsters for a long time!


 Today, it was really foggy, so it was hard to see the next buoy. It was also high tide. Uncle Art, found that a lot of his buoys, were caught up in another buoys roar, and he blamed it on all of the "non lobster" boats, because they go through the buoys and tangle everything up.

This is a picture of the thing that holds all of the herring and the filled bait bags.

That above, is a picture of the thing that we use to put the bait bags, inside of the lobster traps. It has a little hole at the end of the stick, so its just like a giant needle. First, you take it and you stab it through a bait bag, then, you put the string through the end of the stick (while the stick is still through the bait bag) and then you pull it back, and the string should come right back to you, through the bait bag. Then, you can wrap the string around the other side of the cage, keeping it inside.

Near the end of the day, it started to rain, and Uncle Art got me a rain coat. I didn't need it that much because i was banding lobsters at the time, but i did need it when i was filling bait bags. The fog seemed to clear up after the rain was finished. Near the end of the day, i felt a little sick, so i went to wait in Uncle Arts truck, until he finished about 2 hours later.

Here is a picture of the lobster holder. It is the same shape as the bait holder.

When i am done banding a lobster, i send it on its back, down that tube so that it can reach the lobster holder and so that i do not need to walk anywhere to put the lobster in it! 

-August 4, Tuesday (Im posting this wednesday, but this was Tuesdays day)