move Lobster Pots

[Gerrit Coetzee]

Originally Posted by deblen

It is illegal to haul or interfere with a lobsterman's gear in Maine.


They hate cats in particular-twice the props & sail drives are bad for picking up rope.
Install a rope shedding bar from the bottom of your sail drive up to the hull bottom @ 45deg. angle.



https://legislature.maine.gov/statut...12sec6434.html


Rope line cutters are legal in Maine.https://www.spursmarine.com/shaft-cutters/

Oh my word!!
I have not been to Maine and I have not seen that many pots before. Thank you for the video clip. It was jaw dropping.

[psk125]

Looks like Eggemoggin Reach, north end of Deer Isle. Typical.

[sailingabe41ds]

OMG...after watching that video that is the last time I am going to complain about the dozen lobster traps I encounter when I leave my harbor and the other dozen I encounter near my anchorage that are located very very close to the shore such that it does not interfere with my anchoring.

Abe

[MicHughV]

I did one trip to Maine. The lobster pots were so thick you could walk ashore on them. I sincerely don't know a how those folks sail around there. It would be impossible to go in a straight line more than 50' practically anywhere you go. I encountered them way off shore even...at night.....they are marked with radar reflectors, but in the fog, and even with radar on, it was a nightmare.

And it's cold, diving over the side to clear a pot entanglement is wetsuit only...

Maine is beyootiful....best seen by car....

[DMF Sailing]

Originally Posted by sailingabe41ds

OMG...after watching that video that is the last time I am going to complain about the dozen lobster traps I encounter when I leave my harbor and the other dozen I encounter near my anchorage that are located very very close to the shore such that it does not interfere with my anchoring.

Abe

Not to go all Masshole by escalating on this necrothread, but when you cross Massachusetts Bay from Cape Cod, the pots are connected to a separate buoy with a flag on it by a line that is about 3-4 feet long... perfect for hooking a fin keel (or the bulb one I was on one night when I realized the only way we can do this is with a watch strapped in on the foredeck.)

Just a pot is more likely to bounce off your boat, but the thing with the flag is 100% going to hook you should you make the mistake of splitting the two.

The other thing is pots in anchorages, mooring fields, and then the ones that drift into your slip, just asking to foul themselves on your prop...

I love lobster, and heaven knows lobstermen gotta eat while we're out there just having fun, but you have to be really cautious.

[JebLostInSpace]

Originally Posted by psk125

You have a pot winch rigged? The tackle and traps are HEAVY. As Sb1 suggests, moving one could be a short-lived experiment. We had friends that anchored near Tenant’s Harbor in clear water and woke to find themselves totally surrounded by lobster pots. Up around Deer Isle they get almost thick enough to walk on. Most anchorages aren’t good for lobstering. Lobsters like ledge habitat, which is bad holding for anchors. Also, consider who was there first - you or the lobsterman? Who is going to be there last - you or the lobsterman? The pots come with the territory if you want to cruise in Maine.

I stayed in Tenants harbor for a month last summer, and the pots there were CRAZY. Pots all through the narrow channel into the harbor, but they did thankfully end at the mooring field. The anchorage was another story though - your friend's experience sounds just about right. Plus, that anchorage is super annoying with shallow bars at weird spots that limit your swing room.

For OP, I would suggest moorings in Maine are cheap enough and well maintained, and I would always use one when available. My experience up there was the pots aren't an issue on public moorings. Not because the lobstermen have any respect for you, but because they'd lose a lot of pots if they put them there.

On a big cat, you may have a tough time finding moorings with enough swing room for you. When you can't get a mooring, you have to choose between going somewhere else, paying for a dock (if available), or anchoring somewhere that might put you near lobster pots. This really isn't any different than anywhere else - if you anchor your boat it's on you to do so safely and without damaging anyone's stuff. It's definitely a bigger challenge in Maine, but the responsibility is still on you to operate your boat safely

[BigBoater917]

Originally Posted by DMF Sailing

Not to go all Masshole by escalating on this necrothread, but when you cross Massachusetts Bay from Cape Cod, the pots are connected to a separate buoy with a flag on it by a line that is about 3-4 feet long... perfect for hooking a fin keel (or the bulb one I was on one night when I realized the only way we can do this is with a watch strapped in on the foredeck.)

Just a pot is more likely to bounce off your boat, but the thing with the flag is 100% going to hook you should you make the mistake of splitting the two.

The other thing is pots in anchorages, mooring fields, and then the ones that drift into your slip, just asking to foul themselves on your prop...

I love lobster, and heaven knows lobstermen gotta eat while we're out there just having fun, but you have to be really cautious.

My understanding is that the Easternmost pickup buoy in the string has to have the secondary buoy and flag. So you know which end is which when you're passing them. It helps when I'm towing through the area.

[Gerrit Coetzee]

Originally Posted by DMF Sailing

Not to go all Masshole by escalating on this necrothread, but when you cross Massachusetts Bay from Cape Cod, the pots are connected to a separate buoy with a flag on it by a line that is about 3-4 feet long... perfect for hooking a fin keel (or the bulb one I was on one night when I realized the only way we can do this is with a watch strapped in on the foredeck.)

Just a pot is more likely to bounce off your boat, but the thing with the flag is 100% going to hook you should you make the mistake of splitting the two.

The other thing is pots in anchorages, mooring fields, and then the ones that drift into your slip, just asking to foul themselves on your prop...

I love lobster, and heaven knows lobstermen gotta eat while we're out there just having fun, but you have to be really cautious.

Maybe some may see this as a necrothread, but I don't.

I wish to live together with fishermen. Damn, I fish myself, but I wish to keep this thread alive until we can reach a solution where crayfish catchers by pot, share equal responsibility.
When I go hunting, I cannot shoot at random. I have an obligation to ensure my target area is safe, and hell is to play if someone is killed or injured, or just within harms way, because of my actions or neglect.

We must push to obtain an equilibrium somewhere, somehow.
Instead of me enjoying a day out at sea, also just trying to fish and make it through safely, amidts these pot-fields , it turns a smooth experience in a nerve wrecking one, and a nightmare one if you foul any.

And for those so hard lobbying for the "poor fishermen". What about those fishermen whi have neglected or abandoned their pots? There are many that is visually unattended for years.
Removing pots by a date, is not the process around the Caribbean and these dangers lurks there UNTIL SOMEONE
struck one. That is not fair, not reasonable and not acceptable.

[bobnlesley]

Originally Posted by sailingabe41ds

OMG...the last time I am going to complain about the dozen lobster traps I encounter when I leave my harbor and the other dozen I encounter near my anchorage...

When we sailed from the Caribbean to the USA, almost everyone told us: "if you're heading for the USA you MUST visit Maine." They also added the proviso to "Be careful, there are lots of lobster pots."

It was only once we got there that we realised it was an accent thing, what they were actually telling us was that we MUST visit Maine and there are lots of lobster pots.

[crayiii]

Setting their traps inside the marina.

[deblen]

Lobster seasons in Canadian waters:

[GreenWave]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

We were on a mooring in Bah Habah. They dropped pots throughout the moorings and even against our hull. I was told they had legal RIGHTS to place traps anywhere. They in fact did.

Well if someone put a pot where it or the buoy were then up against my hull I will take my chances with the law. That just isn’t right under any circumstances. Plenty of water out there. No need to be a jerk and do that.

[Shanachie]

Maybe it's different in Maine, but if a lobsterman fired a shot at a boat in Florida, he would run a very real chance of having his boat -- and his own body -- shot full of holes from an AR-15.


In much of the country, there's a law called stand your ground. Fire a shot at someone, and the target has the right to kill you while defending himself. No need to back off and try reason.



I don't like guns myself, but I know lots of people who carry them for reasons I can't fathom. (Why do you need to pack when you live in a gated community on a wealthy island?)


And I know that lots of sailors carry rifles on their boats, also for reasons I can't fathom.



More than a few of them are overweight, middle-aged guys who haven't been in a fight since they were 9 and would love the chance to show how macho they are.


I don't pick fights with other boaters for the same reason I don't pick fights with bad drivers. You never know who is carrying what and what kind of mood they are in.

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by crayiii

Setting their traps inside the marina.

Lovely, bottom paint and feces lobster. Must be tasty.

[Uncle Bob]

Originally Posted by Franziska

Lovely, bottom paint and feces lobster. Must be tasty.

A taste to die for.