((PKG)) MAINE LOBSTERMAN
((Banner: Saving the Lobsters))
((Reporter: Julia Taboh))
((Camera: Adam Greenbaum))
((Adapted by: Martin Secrest))
((Map: Portland, Maine))
((NATS: waterfront))
((Popup Banner: Lobsters have been fished since the
1800s in Maine, the leading US lobster state))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
Well, I started lobstering as a summer job as a kid when I
was 14 and then lobstered every summer until I went to
college for about a year and then dropped out and started
lobstering year round. So, I've been lobstering for 35 years
in total.
((NATS: boat))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
Alright, so that is a beauty.
((NATS: boat))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
So, every lobster has to be at least three and a quarter
inches [8.2cm] to keep it across his back. So, what we do is
we hook this right behind the lobster’s eye, back corner of
his eye socket and then we watch carefully to see where this
point touches. If that lands on the lobster’s back, he’s big
enough. If it touches beneath the back, he's too short. You
can see that one easily touches on the back. This one we
can keep.
Every time we get a ‘keeper’ lobster, we have to check the
sex. So, on the females, we're always looking for eggs. And
when a female is carrying her eggs, the entire bottom of her
tail will be covered with thousands and thousands of little
black dots. So, if we catch one of those inside the trap,
we're going to set her free. But before we do, we're going to
mark her as a breeding female. So, what the lobsterman
does is we take something sharp and we leave a scar on the
second tail flipper from the right. We actually mark it with a
scar, so that scar indicates that she's a breeding female. So,
even after she's thrown back and the eggs are released into
the sea, we're always checking the sex and we're always
checking females for a mark. If the female has a mark, she
gets thrown back for the rest of her life. The Maine
fishermen thought this law up and had it passed in the 1930s
to protect the breeding females. And it's not a perfect
system because it is possible for a female to carry eggs but
never happen to walk in a trap and get the mark. But we're
saving the majority and certainly enough to keep our lobster
population very healthy in the state of Maine.
((NATS: boat))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
Let’s go through the measuring process. A little bit too short.
((NATS: boat))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
So, you can imagine that once we mark a female, she's
going to get thrown back from the trap, year after year after
year. So eventually, we have a lot of very large breeding
females in our population. Those large females need a
similar sized male to mate with. So, we also need to protect
some big males to mate with the big females. So, we've
already used the short side of the measure of three-and-a-
quarter inches [8.2cm], but the back of the measure is five
inches [12.7cm] and that's a maximum size limit.
In the state of Maine, you can't keep a lobster that's over five
inches on the carapace. To that guarantees that we
preserve some big males to keep mating with the big
females that we've saved by notching their tails. But this is
one of the primary reasons why our lobster population in the
state of Maine is still so high. We're doing such a good job
to conserve the breeding females.
((NATS: boat))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
I really enjoy doing it. It's a lot of hard work, but I think the
reward can be there and every year is different. I mean,
some years you catch a lot of lobsters, some years you
don't. So, you can never really rely on the income entirely,
but you just work as hard as you can and then let the chips
fall where they may.
((NATS: boat))
((Banner: Saving the Lobsters))
((Reporter: Julia Taboh))
((Camera: Adam Greenbaum))
((Adapted by: Martin Secrest))
((Map: Portland, Maine))
((NATS: waterfront))
((Popup Banner: Lobsters have been fished since the
1800s in Maine, the leading US lobster state))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
Well, I started lobstering as a summer job as a kid when I
was 14 and then lobstered every summer until I went to
college for about a year and then dropped out and started
lobstering year round. So, I've been lobstering for 35 years
in total.
((NATS: boat))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
Alright, so that is a beauty.
((NATS: boat))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
So, every lobster has to be at least three and a quarter
inches [8.2cm] to keep it across his back. So, what we do is
we hook this right behind the lobster’s eye, back corner of
his eye socket and then we watch carefully to see where this
point touches. If that lands on the lobster’s back, he’s big
enough. If it touches beneath the back, he's too short. You
can see that one easily touches on the back. This one we
can keep.
Every time we get a ‘keeper’ lobster, we have to check the
sex. So, on the females, we're always looking for eggs. And
when a female is carrying her eggs, the entire bottom of her
tail will be covered with thousands and thousands of little
black dots. So, if we catch one of those inside the trap,
we're going to set her free. But before we do, we're going to
mark her as a breeding female. So, what the lobsterman
does is we take something sharp and we leave a scar on the
second tail flipper from the right. We actually mark it with a
scar, so that scar indicates that she's a breeding female. So,
even after she's thrown back and the eggs are released into
the sea, we're always checking the sex and we're always
checking females for a mark. If the female has a mark, she
gets thrown back for the rest of her life. The Maine
fishermen thought this law up and had it passed in the 1930s
to protect the breeding females. And it's not a perfect
system because it is possible for a female to carry eggs but
never happen to walk in a trap and get the mark. But we're
saving the majority and certainly enough to keep our lobster
population very healthy in the state of Maine.
((NATS: boat))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
Let’s go through the measuring process. A little bit too short.
((NATS: boat))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
So, you can imagine that once we mark a female, she's
going to get thrown back from the trap, year after year after
year. So eventually, we have a lot of very large breeding
females in our population. Those large females need a
similar sized male to mate with. So, we also need to protect
some big males to mate with the big females. So, we've
already used the short side of the measure of three-and-a-
quarter inches [8.2cm], but the back of the measure is five
inches [12.7cm] and that's a maximum size limit.
In the state of Maine, you can't keep a lobster that's over five
inches on the carapace. To that guarantees that we
preserve some big males to keep mating with the big
females that we've saved by notching their tails. But this is
one of the primary reasons why our lobster population in the
state of Maine is still so high. We're doing such a good job
to conserve the breeding females.
((NATS: boat))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
I really enjoy doing it. It's a lot of hard work, but I think the
reward can be there and every year is different. I mean,
some years you catch a lot of lobsters, some years you
don't. So, you can never really rely on the income entirely,
but you just work as hard as you can and then let the chips
fall where they may.
((NATS: boat))
