Lobster Fest
by Kay Novy
Title
Lobster Fest
Artist
Kay Novy
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Some fabulous looking lobsters that we had recently for a special occasion family dinner.
Centuries ago in North America, lobsters were so plentiful that Native Americans used them to fertilize their fields and to bait their hooks for fishing. In colonial times, lobsters were considered "food for the poor." They were harvested from tidal pools and served to children, to prisoners, and to indentured servants, who exchanged their passage to America for seven years of service to their sponsors. In Massachusetts, some of the servants became so tired of eating lobster that they had it put into their contracts they would not be forced to eat lobster more than three times a week.
Until the early 1800s, catching lobsters was done by gathering them by hand along the shoreline. Lobstering as a trap fishery came into existence in Maine around 1850. Today Maine is the largest lobster-producing state in the nation.
The first lobster pound appeared on Vinalhaven Island in 1875 and others quickly followed. Lobster pounds work by keeping lobsters in tanks with sea water passing freely through them. The first lobster pound was in a deep tidal creek, but today they are more common on docks along the harbor's edge. Using the pound, dealers can wait for the price of lobster to increase or allow a newly-molted lobster time to harden its shell.
In response to a growing demand for lobster, lobsters were canned beginning in 1836. The Burnham & Morrill Company was one of the early canneries in existence in Maine. Now primarily in the baked bean business, B&M was canning lobsters and sending them to all parts of the world, according to an 1880 history of Cumberland County, Maine. Canning the lobsters overcame some of the difficulties associated with shipping live lobsters, and by the second half of the 19th century the value of canned lobster had surpassed that of live lobster.
The canneries were so efficient at processing the lobsters that they were soon forced to work with smaller lobsters. It was reported that In 1860, four to five pound lobsters were considered small and the two pound lobsters were being discarded as not worth the effort to pick the meat for canning. Only twenty years later, the canneries were stuffing meat from half-pound lobsters into the tins for processing.
During World War II lobster was considered a delicacy, and consequently was not rationed. Thus lobster meat filled the increasing demand for protein-rich food. People could afford to buy lobster because of the boom of the war-time economy. Although there was a decline in lobster purchases immediately after the war, lobster consumption rapidly rebounded. In the years between 1950 and 1969, lobster consumed per person increased from .585 pounds (live weight) to just about one pound. At the same time the cost of lobster rose faster than the national inflation rate, increasing profits for lobstermen and thereby encouraging more people to join the industry.
As with all fisheries, individual states manage lobster fishing within their three-mile boundaries. In Maine, this job is done by the Maine Department of Marine Resources. Since it is impossible to tell the difference between lobsters caught near shore and offshore, as they look exactly the same when they are loaded at the wharf, it is important that interstate and federal regulations complement each other. An organization called the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, formed in 1942, helps to do this. A compact of 15 eastern seaboard states, the Commission has three representatives from each state. These people include the Director of the state's marine resources management agency, a state legislator, and a fisheries representative appointed by the Governor. The member states are responsible for implementing the Commission Plan. The federal partners in lobster management are also part of the Commission process and work to complement the states efforts. Through the auspices of the National Marine Fisheries Service, federal regulations are adopted for lobster harvesting between three and 200 miles from shore, the United States' "economic zone".
All states and the federal government share a minimum legal size, 3 1/4 inches carapace-length--from the eye socket to the beginning of the tail. A lobster caught at this size weighs about 1 1/4 lb. The minimum size for legal lobsters was increased in 1988 after scientists persuaded the lobstermen that at the size lobsters were being harvested, 90% of all lobsters were being captured before they'd had a chance to reproduce even once. They argued that only ten percent of the population could not continue to produce enough baby lobsters to keep the industry going for many more years. Nearly 20 years later, in hindsight this was an incredibly wise decision. The Maine lobster population continues to flourish.
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Uploaded
April 27th, 2012
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