Summer Internship Spotlight: The Recreational Lobsterwoman
Gulf of Maine, Inc. was happy to host Renée Rossi for the summer internship program. Reneé is a rising tennis star working on her double major in Spanish and Environmental Science at Thomas College. During her stay, she helped out with some video production for Tidepool Tim’s YouTube channel.
Besides riding the four-wheeler down to the beach, Renée probably had the most fun getting her non-commercial lobster harvesting license. Any Maine resident can apply for a non-commercial lobster license, and once you have one, you’re permitted to set up to five (5) traps in Maine’s coastal waters. While non-commercial license holders aren’t allowed to sell the lobsters, they are more than encouraged to enjoy their catch with friends and family. And thanks to Renée, we here at Gulf of Maine, Inc. this summer were in steady supply of lobster salad!
It’s worth mentioning that the lobsters in Cobscook Bay liked Renée’s traps the best because her buoys were hand painted with love.
Last week, Renée came back to Pembroke to haul her traps for the end to her season. Really, there is no 'off-season' for lobsters, as they can be harvested year-round. But between college coursework and her job with The Boys and Girls Club of Maine, there’s just not enough time for Renée to come up and harvest as much as she’d like! Leaving her traps for too long without tending to them can lead to lost gear, as the buoys collect kelp and other seaweeds that create drag on the line and trap. Storm winds can then drag the bouy, line, and trap far from where they were set, causing "ghost-traps" which are never to be found again…
It’s true that on the coast of Maine, as well as for the rest of New England, we usually think of lobster as a summer food. There is absolutely more demand in the summer months with all of the visiting tourists. Plus, in the summer season, lobsters migrate to warmer waters of the shore to shed their shells – an exoskeleton made of a flexible biomaterial called chitin.
Freshly molted lobsters are considered soft-shelled; they have less meat per pound because their new shells are more spacious to allow for growth. But in order to grow, the lobsters need to feed. This makes soft-shell lobsters easy catch. They walk right into the kitchen looking for a meal!
Hand drawn lobster trap diagram courtesy of Eddie Atwell: (https://intothetrap.wordpress.com/)
So, if you visit Maine in the summer looking for a lobster dinner, you may be surprised to find two different prices per pound: cheaper prices for the soft-shell, and higher prices for less available hard-shell lobsters. In autumn, from about mid-September into December, the commercial lobstermen and women fetch a pretty penny for their catch! It’s this season when they harvest mostly hard-shell lobsters, which are sold and shipped around the world, often for Christmas dinners and New Year’s parties.
Heading into the winter months (January – March), due to the colder waters, lobsters are less active and so there’s significantly less lobstering. Still, some lobster harvesters brave the harsh cold, and boat out further offshore into rough waters to make a living. Most just wait until springtime for things to pick up again. In May and June, lobsters just about to molt have the most meat, and tourists come back to the New England coast to sightsee Maine’s natural wonders, and of course to eat the famous Maine lobster roll!
We appreciate all the hard work from our student interns with Gulf of Maine, Inc., and we like to think our interns appreciate the perks that come along with life out in Cobscook Bay. We hope that Renée learned a lot out in the tide pools, and we know that for sure she loved her lobsters!
