Lobster Pots II

[David M]

Originally Posted by Chief Engineer

Lobstermen need to cut out the middleman.....

Advertise on eBay....ship anywhere

...or start their own distribution network.

[sailorboy1]

they have started to do this, the middlemen of course are saying they are going to screw themselves in the long run

[Zednotzee]

Ironic that lobster was considered a food for poor people up until sometime in the 1800's. We could get rid of the pots if we stopped eating Sea Bugs (but they're sooo tasty).

[sailorboy1]

Dam if this weekend the magnetic attration was specially strong and was timed to be in perfect inverse sync with the wind. IE, if there were a bunch of them ahead then the wind died right when I got into the field of floats so that I was tempted to start the engine. I believe that one of them moved itself 10 feet or so when I got next to it and took a turn around the rudder looking for a ride (most have because I'm SURE it wasn't my driving). By the way I now vote for Maine as home to the prettiest floats, or maybe up there they just lose more of them and have to replace them offen enough to always have freshy painted ones.

[osirissail]

- - Having been through Boston waters a few times and the Chesapeake many times, I would vote for the Chesapeake as having the worst "pot/trap" problem. There are clearly delineated boundaries on nautical charts for "pot/trap fields" instead they mine the entire bay shore to shore. I have seen them mine the main Annapolis channel and have watched the US Navy ships churning though a hundred pot/trap floats on the way in or out of Annapolis.
- - I was heading south from Delaware just after Isabelle and thought maybe I made a navigational mistake as when I got into the Chesapeake all the pot/traps were gone. I asked a local where all the traps went and he said the police made them take them all up for Isabelle. That was a once in a lifetime joy to sail the length of the Chesapeake and - no - traps.
- - I installed the "Spurrs" line cutter system on my prop shaft and it has paid for itself many times over by chopping free any lines threatening to entangle my prop. I stay in the charted "freeways" when in the Chesapeake but still encounter enough of them to keep my "Spurrs" busy.
- - Regulation is fine but unless there is money to enforce them, the fishermen/trappers simple ignore everything and mine the whole waters - everywhere in the world. The basic instinct to eat and then to make money makes meaningful regulation very difficult. In the Bahamas and Caribbean in particular there are few, in any, large fish, conch or shell fish available anymore. The saying around here is - if it moves they have eaten it. In the local fish markets the vast majority of fish for sale are small sand sharks and barracuda. "Fingerlings" little fish from 2 to 5 inches in size are caught and sold as the most available fish around.