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Lobster Fishing  Today, Maine is the largest lobster-producing state in the nation. Lobsters love the Maine coast because of its cold, clean water and rocky bottom habitat. Lobstermen harvest lobsters year-round and more lobsters are caught between late June and late December. This is because lobsters are more active during that time period. Maine lobsters are delicious. About once a year, mature lobsters shed their tough, old shell and replace it with a larger shell that hardens over time. Inside the shell is where the flavorful meat is stored. Lobstering by trapping these crustaceans in a cage was developed in the 1850s. Lobstering in Maine became an important industry because of the high demand in the Boston and New York markets. Lobstering remains an important part of Maine culture even today. Native Americans used to use lobsters as fertilizer. Lobsters also used to be canned during WW II because it was more affordable.

Our lobstering experience was very eventful and interesting. We went out on Dave Hiltz's boat the Sure Thing for an afternoon. You never know what your going to find in those traps. Some of the interesting things that we found in our traps included: sea cucumbers, starfish, hermit crabs, flounder, and sea fleas to mention a few.

Dave Hiltz is pulling the lobsters and other creatures out of the trap. The maximum amount of traps you can have out at once is 800. He's showing us how to tell if the lobster is male or female. If its female it has some hairs on the underside of its stomach. Some lobsters are to big to keep while others are too small. There is a special tool used to determine if the lobsters are too big or too small. The one in this picture with us was too big to keep. So after the photo op we threw it into the big, blue ocean. In addition, if you catch a female lobster with eggs, you have to clip the middle tail fin and throw her back. Once a lobster has a clip in its tail, it never be harvested for the rest of its life. Dave has a special machine that helps pulls the traps out of the water. Only ten percent of the lobsters that mingle in the traps actually stay in them. We recommend that if you ever get the opportunity to go lobstering then you take this once in a lifetime experience.

written by: Grace Grinold and Ally Abrahamson