I'm just now getting to it, but Matt visited last weekend to celebrate my birthday and explore a little bit of Maine. We decided to stay close, so we spent most of our time in and around Portland and Freeport. Today, I'll just cover the lobster boat tour we went on out of Portland. We went with Lucky Catch Cruises and had an excellent time. Our boat tour was an hour and a half through the lovely Casco Bay. We learned how to bait lobster traps, put them in, pull them out, and evaluate the lobsters. I learned a lot, and it was excellent to be out on the water.
Of course, now on to the important part: pictures!
all suited up
Learning how a lobster trap works. Lobsters climb in the big hole to munch on the rotting fish. They then fall into the first (on the left here) part of the trap. They won't climb back up the rings, but they will climb up the ramp to the right where they then fall into a larger holding area in the trap. There are vents to allow small lobsters out.
You can only keep lobsters between 3.5" and 5" in Maine; this helps maintain a sustainable catch. Once you've got a keeper, you get to rubberband its claws so that it doesn't fight with the other lobsters in the tank. Here, Matt is rubberbanding the lobster we just caught.