I love Boston...

By the way... in the spirit of our conversation about being "stewards" of our forests...

Most people know that there is a minimum size limit to the lobster that can be legally caught. It is not a weight limit, but a size limit - from the eye socket to the back of the carapace. But lobster of this size are about 1 1/4 lbs (which is why you don't see smaller lobster on the menu).

What most people don't know is that there is an UPPER size limit to the lobster that can be legally caught - without a special license. This is to allow the larger, healthier lobster to return to the wild in order to reproduce larger, healthier offspring. A 2 lb female might carry 1500 eggs... while a 4 lb female might carry 20,000 - so the math makes sense. Additionally, if a lobster is ever pulled from a trap and is an egg-bearing female, her tail is notched and she is returned to the water. A notched tail means she cannot be caught for at least three more years.

The super secret thing most people don't know is that all lobster traps have an entrance... and an exit. The exit is sized so that any lobster smaller than approximately minimum legal size (1 1/4 lbs) can exit safely, but larger lobster cannot squeeze out. Given the thousands of lobster traps off the coast of New England, many lobstermen consider their traps a safe harbor for juvenile lobster to feed until they get to market size. And it costs money to bait those traps - about $1 per trap. If you are pulling an 800 trap line it adds up.

The super large lobster are caught via drag nets - which are controversial given their environmental destruction. You cannot drag net for lobster... but if you are one of the few fishermen who has a dragnet license, you can dragnet for flounder and keep (no more than) 10% of your total catch as marketable by-catch. This is when you see the big 40lb lobster showing up from time to time... they got caught in a drag net in deep water.

 

When I fish for Lobster, I use this...


I know, I know, crab is not lobster. The Pacific is not the Atlantic. But It's a cool boat so...