2bnMaine

It’s been a turkey of a year for lobstermen still struggling with the current market and various economic pressures, eventually resulting in scarey stories of shootings this summer.

The lobster story continues as Linda Bean, the L.L. Bean heiress, initiates her new Linda Bean’s Perfect Maine (Lobster) Company. Concerned about the plight of the local lobstermen, she’s invested millions into the company, with plans to open 100 franchises, nationwide, of her version of the lobster shack.

So this year, once again, give thanks to your local lobsterman by treating yourself to the luxury of a lobster dinner!

(A similar post ran last year and it’s still unforutnately appropriate this year. Don’t want to run it next!)

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Maine’s lobstermen are toughing it out during this downturn. The price of lobster has fallen so far that it’s no more expensive than sliced turkey. Now there’s no reason not to enjoy one of life’s luxuries.

It seems strange that a century ago, lobsters were so plentiful that farmers used them for fertilizer, because nobody wanted to eat them. They were not the delicacy they are today and were routinely fed to prisoners. And not as their last meal.

All lobster boats are pretty, but there’s something special about a red hull cutting through Maine’s dark blue water, especially on a dreary day.

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The quirky, and pretty, elver nets are back on the Union River that flows through Ellsworth. They’re quite puzzling if you don’t know what they are. Here’s last year’s post about fishing for elvers. Elvers are young eels.

And here are some really amazing American Eel facts:

1. The American Eel, Anguilla Rostrata, is considered to have the broadest diversity of habitats of any fish in the world.
2. It has survived at least one ice age.
3. The eggs are laid, and they hatch, in the Saragasso Sea — two-million-square-miles of warm water in the North Atlantic between the West Indies and the Azores.
4. The tiny transparent larvae follow the ocean currents and salinity in the water for about a year to arrive at various destinations. Some remain in the ocean, some go far up fresh water streams and others remain in estuaries. This is called facultative catadromy – meaning taking place under some conditions but not under others, or optional.
5. In the next phase they’re called glass eels because they’re still transparent but have developed their adult shape.
6. Their sex is eventually determined by the density of the population — more eels = more males, less eels = more females.
7. They can cover their bodies with mucus — ’slippery as eels.’
8. They reach sexual maturity at various times between 3 and 40 years!
9. They can move equally well forward and backward.
10. Some females can get to 5 feet, most males reach 3 feet.
11. They can breath through their skin and their gills, so they can travel on land.
12. They are carnivores and eat fish, frogs, insects, clams, etc. and any dead animal matter.

Here is more info from The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

The nets will remain in Ellsworth until the end of the month. So if you want to see them, you’d better hurry. You can also visit the wonderful Rooster Brother at the same time, and harvest some of their fantastic freshly roasted coffees.

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This year lots of folks aren’t going to have turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, they’ll have lobster instead, which will help out the local lobstermen, struggling with various economic pressures.

Bob Baines, chair of the Lobster Advisory Council, said, “It’s as bad as it’s ever been. It’s unprecedented. Guys are not making the money they need to make to get through the winter.”

Baines calls it a kind of perfect economic storm. Canadian processors buy 70% of Maine’s lobster. Their freezers are full, and lobster’s not selling because of the poor economy. A number of Canadian companies are now caught up in the financial trouble in Iceland. The crisis is costing the entire Maine economy a fortune.”

Happy Thanksgiving!

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