A case against crayfish cages

[Gerrit Coetzee]

Originally Posted by guyrj33

So automatically cutting the line to the pot is somehow less selfish than asking the fishermen to better mark their gear? I fail to understand your logic.

A rational voice. Thank you. A logical question. Much appreciated.

[Gerrit Coetzee]

Originally Posted by GILow

Don’t worry about that poster, they always post those sorts of remarks.

Actually, I suspect they are envious of a person who can afford an IPS drive.

I had a look at the design, and although I was a bit worried about the vulnerability of the propellors, I think the fuel savings may well offset the potential service costs. Those drives are being fitted to very big high-performance boats with, I imagine, huge fuel costs. Any improvement in efficiency would make a big difference to costs over time.

Fascinating system, and were I ever able to afford the sort of boat that could use them, I would certainly consider them.

May sanity prevails.
Inspiring message. I fondly regard them too.

[Gerrit Coetzee]

Originally Posted by deblen

Google "sailboat kelp cutter"
Cheers/Len

Was looking at that as you pointed out.
Do you think it effective against ropes?

[unbusted67]

Originally Posted by BillKny

Of course if you are making way through the water, putting the engine in neutral does NOT, and never will, stop the propeller from turning. A common mistake.



That is a very selfish solution that you propose to solve YOUR problem. Every fisherman needs to spend thousands of dollars, when for $600 or $800 you could have line cutters on each propeller and avoid the issue. Or just sail the boat in areas of risk. This is a sailboat, right?

We sail (NOT motor) through fields of pots all the time. We avoid them when we can, but with our prop tucked behind the keel and locked in place, and a skeg hung rudder with no "line catchin" gaps, if we miss one, it just slides by. We have a line cutter on the prop "just in case" and, as far as we know, have never put it to test.

You've got a mighty strong opinion about this for someone who has never put it to the test. Shaft cutters work about 50% of the time provided you haven't turned the pot warp into a ball of molten plastic by the time it does its job.

I live and operate year round up here in Maine, the land of the lobster pot and you are going to have a hard time convincing me that lobster gear isn't a hazard to navigation and that the solution to that hazard is putting cutters on your shaft. If your plan is to just cut through people's gear, then you are the *******. If you are a fisherman and need to put toggles on all of your gear because you are too lazy to reach over the side with a boat hook then you are the *******.

It sounds like the OP got in a mess and dealt with it. **** happens. There's an old saying, if you haven't been aground, you haven't been around. Well if you haven't been afoul maybe you haven't been around either.

[Gerrit Coetzee]

Originally Posted by unbusted67

You've got a mighty strong opinion about this for someone who has never put it to the test. Shaft cutters work about 50% of the time provided you haven't turned the pot warp into a ball of molten plastic by the time it does its job.

I live and operate year round up here in Maine, the land of the lobster pot and you are going to have a hard time convincing me that lobster gear isn't a hazard to navigation and that the solution to that hazard is putting cutters on your shaft. If your plan is to just cut through people's gear, then you are the *******. If you are a fisherman and need to put toggles on all of your gear because you are too lazy to reach over the side with a boat hook then you are the *******.

It sounds like the OP got in a mess and dealt with it. **** happens. There's an old saying, if you haven't been aground, you haven't been around. Well if you haven't been afoul maybe you haven't been around either.

It helps if someone with more experience gets involved and exerts with dominance an expert view.

Since I am only full time cruising the last 3 years, and the knuckle head who got tangled, I rely on professionals reviews and inputs.

I appreciate what you said with "There's an old saying, if you haven't been aground, you haven't been around. Well if you haven't been afoul maybe you haven't been around either." - Sir, then I am a qualifying candidate.😅


I like the idea of having submerged buoys!!!. Submerged bouys are save! It will mostly pull the pod rope straight up and fairly pinpointable with gps. It will surely not cause entanglement, because it runs up straight and at 1m down will miss most propellers of pleasure craft.

A wire/cable behind a lobsterboat, can easily hook a pot rope so rigged.

Then the pots are save for boaters, neat on the eye, not a life-risking contraption, and even the pot owners are safe from possible lobster thieves (if those exist), as the locations would be secret.

In PR is a charter operator who for 35 years operates his boat. Instead of a mooring ball, he has a submerged mooring ball. It is much more effort, as the deckhand needs to dive down every day, 5ft down, to hook his boat to the spot.

Suddenly your comment makes much more sense than what initially meets the eye.

Bravo! Something worth to explorer. It literally puts the ball back in the hands of the pot owners.

Nobel prize for you my friend.

[deblen]

Maine lobster buoy methods:


https://www.bycatch.org/sites/defaul...r_Report_0.pdf

[Gerrit Coetzee]

Originally Posted by deblen

Maine lobster buoy methods:


https://www.bycatch.org/sites/defaul...r_Report_0.pdf

Thank you for submission.

It is a must read.

It is 36 pg report with specifications pertaining largely to Maine.

The details and data in the report is staggering!!

In region A-G alone, each region has in excess of 300,000 pots each. In Maine that accounts for (A-G is 7 zones) 2,1million pots. Let that sink in.

They account for 83% of lobster catches running in, not hundred thousands, but MILLIONS of pounds and with 2000 commercial and more than10,000 sport pot licences, each with 7-10 pots on average. Not one or two million pounds per region, but seven to 30 million pounds per region.

Thus, the lobster industry is a big, powerful ,and well represented organisational structure.

In Maine it is well regulated. The regulations are due to large fish and mammal trappings. Note that there is the regulations because it leads to whales and other sea mammals entrapment. (Can we include boats???!!!)

Thus pots do hold and environmental and human safety risk. Take due note of this .

The "Live and let live" adage go both ways!!!


We must demand for bigger and better and more secure warning and visibility requirements.

(If there is a 400 million pound harvest every year in Maine, let me quote going prices per lbs jn Maine:

Company Min. Order Price/lb*
Lobster Anywhere 1 lb. $44.50
Best Maine Lobster 2 lbs $59.99
Cape Porpoise Lobster Company 1 lb $75.00
The Lobster Guy 2 lbs $53.00

Market share for Maine at $50/Lbs is $2Trillion.

it means that I cannot stand the BS comments of some of 'save the poor fishermen' when there is a lobby for greater safety for boats, in the face of these figures.

[Montanan]

Correction to the above post being literally several magnitudes of order exaggerated in value.

Though Maine’s lobster harvest was smallest in 9 years, value remained steady
The average per-pound price in 2019 was a whopping $4.82, the highest since Maine began tracking lobster hauls back in 1880.

Maine's seafood harvest: once again lobster leads the way
https://www.pressherald.com/2020/03/...ls%20back%20in
Snipets:

At $674 million the value of Maine’s commercially harvested marine resources in 2019 was the second highest of all time, and an increase of more than $26 million over 2018.

Leading the way were landings for Maine signature crustacean, lobster.

Although the lobster harvest of 100.7 million pounds was down 17 percent from the previous year, the overall value of $485 million was the fourth most lucrative ever for the fishery as a result of a 20 percent rise in per-pound-value.
Tthe decline in landings in part to a slow start to the season last year due to a cold spring.

According to data published by NOAA, American lobster was the most valuable single species harvested in the U.S. in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, with Maine landings accounting for approximately 80 percent of that value each year.

Elvers again topped $2,000 per pound which resulted in an overall value of $20 million , ranking it as the second most valuable species harvested in Maine in 2019 and once again by far the most valuable on a per pound basis.

Softshell clammers raked in an additional 623,000 pounds compared to 2018, which generated more than $18 million for harvesters and made softshell clams Maine’s third most valuable species. The uptick in value was due to the additional landings plus a 30 percent increase in value, which jumped from $1.80 per pound in 2018 to $2.34 per pound in 2019.

3.2 million pounds of oysters were harvested in 2019, an increase of 460,911 pounds over 2018, resulting in a jump in value of $336,334, for a total value of $7,622,441, making oysters the fourth most valuable species.

The fifth and sixth most valuable fisheries in Maine were blood worms, used as bait for species including striped bass, and urchins.

[Gerrit Coetzee]

Originally Posted by Montanan

Correction to the above post being literally several magnitudes of order exaggerated in value.

Though Maine’s lobster harvest was smallest in 9 years, value remained steady
The average per-pound price in 2019 was a whopping $4.82, the highest since Maine began tracking lobster hauls back in 1880.

Maine's seafood harvest: once again lobster leads the way
https://www.pressherald.com/2020/03/...ls%20back%20in
Snipets:

At $674 million the value of Maine’s commercially harvested marine resources in 2019 was the second highest of all time, and an increase of more than $26 million over 2018.

Leading the way were landings for Maine signature crustacean, lobster.

Although the lobster harvest of 100.7 million pounds was down 17 percent from the previous year, the overall value of $485 million was the fourth most lucrative ever for the fishery as a result of a 20 percent rise in per-pound-value.
Tthe decline in landings in part to a slow start to the season last year due to a cold spring.

According to data published by NOAA, American lobster was the most valuable single species harvested in the U.S. in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, with Maine landings accounting for approximately 80 percent of that value each year.

Elvers again topped $2,000 per pound which resulted in an overall value of $20 million , ranking it as the second most valuable species harvested in Maine in 2019 and once again by far the most valuable on a per pound basis.

Softshell clammers raked in an additional 623,000 pounds compared to 2018, which generated more than $18 million for harvesters and made softshell clams Maine’s third most valuable species. The uptick in value was due to the additional landings plus a 30 percent increase in value, which jumped from $1.80 per pound in 2018 to $2.34 per pound in 2019.

3.2 million pounds of oysters were harvested in 2019, an increase of 460,911 pounds over 2018, resulting in a jump in value of $336,334, for a total value of $7,622,441, making oysters the fourth most valuable species.

The fifth and sixth most valuable fisheries in Maine were blood worms, used as bait for species including striped bass, and urchins.

Exaggerated? My quoted prices might be wholesale prices, but quoted "verbatim" from the net.

Yet, this is not what this is about. If they get a $1/lbs or $100/lbs. This thread is not what it is about.

The report is there to position pots (where they pertain to Maine), how many there are and to show that pots and more specific the ropes are a distinct threat to humans and mammal entrapment.

Did anyone care to read that it cause whales and other mammals to die!!

Now there is an a debate on lobster prices and accusations of exaggerations- wholly off the point. So thank you for the elaborated price correction.

Can we get back to the crux where I ask for fellow boaters, who had been endangered or envisage the potential real danger, to lobby for increased safety measures.

How about sinking bouys, that remotely controlled are inflated and then pop to the surface for retieval?

More expensive for "poor fishermen ", but that could take the buoy and its lines way out off the path of mammals (.....and boats I hasten to add).

Any voices to add to this suggestion promoting the concept?