I like being out on the ocean. I love it.
The Channel Islands are really very pristine, an amazing pristine environment.
This time of year especially, while islands really green and we've
seen exceptional numbers of birds and forage fish, tons of pelagic red crabs and anchovies.
So the environment out there is just
exciting and alive.
The most enjoyable part about being a commercial lobster fisherman is the freedom
it provides me. Being my own boss, being on the water, being underneath the sun
and not fluorescent lights, and just enjoying what I do.
If a new fisherman was to actually ask advice of a veteran fisherman,
most specifically about trap loss and how do I avoid it,
he might get some really valuable information.
When these are left in the water for five months at a time,
your string, your entire set of gear,
it's quite expensive, and it's your source of income, so you protect it. They're your babies.
You want to know what's going to happen to them.
You want to do everything in your power to make certain that you don't lose your gear.
If we lose a trap then the opportunity to catch in that trap is
gone and not only that. That trap can damage the resource as it continues to
fish and we all kind of know that and so it hurts the grounds if you have a trap
that's lost and potentially fishing.
Traps can continue to capture lobsters
and other species when they're lost and until they break apart.
Some lobster fishermen are self-organizing and are making an effort to clean up traps that
end up on the beach.
The primary loss of gear is due to negligence.
Weather is the factor that actually causes the loss of the gear but
generally it's negligence by a fisherman and not being able to move his traps.
The NOAA Marine Debris Program along with Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary
and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife have been
interviewing lobster fishermen to develop these best practices for prevention of gear loss.
Of course you want to avoid setting your pots in anchorages or in the mouths of harbors
because you're far more likely to lose them that year due to the boat traffic.
It's common sense to not set a whole lot of gear in areas that are
going to be heavily trafficked.
You need to have your trap properly weighted
because when the swell comes up it can pull your trap away from where it is
and drag it shallower or throw it on the beach or it can just simply drag it deeper
deeper and sink your buoy.
Using steel is far better than using concrete
because concrete has a great deal of air in it and isn't nearly as effective at
holding the trap to the bottom.
[Weather report on radio]
If the swell is going to be six feet I can fish in this depth of water.
If it's going to be 12 feet I've got to go to this depth.
In order to stay abreast of the weather I spend a
lot of time on a website called 17ft.com.
It gives a projection of the swell
as well as NOAA's readout of their forecast for the five or six days into the future.
Watch what other veteran fisherman do when the storm and the swell happen.
Learn. I mean the second that they move their gear out,
you should be right behind them.
If you're going to fish in a high current zone, you need a
lot of buoy, but the more buoy you put on a trap,
the more likelihood it is to slide away if it's not properly weighted.
Weighted lines is paramount to be able to make sure that boats can travel around them
as safely as possible.
In order to keep someone from running over your line
and cutting off your trap, you want the last third of your line to be sinking.
To get those dimensions accurately we fathom it really fast. So this is just
counting out your six-foot wingspan or whatever your height is.
Just count out your depth. And then you attach the floating to sinking where the
fisherman's knot or a lover's knot.
Most fishermen know how to bring two lines together.
By law, the buoy has to be, the number has to be kept in a condition
that's easily readable by enforcement.
Secondly, the lines, the more drag you have
is created by the more growth you have on it.
The cleaner the line, the less drag you're going to have.
The less opportunity for that trap to be able to be pulled away
by the currents or by surf.
Okay so this is a line cover.
Inside of it is engine cooler and it fits in a barrel like that.
You fill the barrel with water.
I just plug this into my engine and this assumes the temperature of my engine
which is about 180 degrees
And so by the time you fill it up with water,
when you run about an hour, your water is 180 degrees.
So you take the coil of rope
as the trap comes over the side and you take the entire coil and you just hold
it underwater, you know, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, and then takes it out and it
looks like nothing has happened but in effect you basically killed all the growth.
You throw the trap back over, you come back the next day, and the rope looks brand new.
It's a fantastic thing.
When you set a trap, it's super beneficial to make a mark on your GPS
so that you have a waypoint to go back to.
Not only will you consistently recover gear
that may be pulled down in current or move slightly even,
you can easily find it. It can be foggy, it can be horribly windy, it can be really
difficult to see traps. Having them logged in to your plotter is really
beneficial in getting to your gear and servicing it regularly.
With the next fishing season there will be a limit per permittee of 300 traps.
The trap limit that is going to go into regulatory action this coming year and for the years to come,
I think will significantly reduce the amount of trap loss.
Each permittee will be given 300 trap tags
by the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Each trap must carry a tag while it's in use
or while it's in transit on the water and those
trap tags will be renewed each year.
The department's goal in managing lobster is sustainability for the fishery in perpetuity.
It's a neat community.
What we do for a living is pretty special.
I get it and if you're doing it next to me you get it too. We share that.
you