Have you ever wondered how trapping for things like crab and lobster works? If you ever lived or traveled to certain small coastal towns on the East Coast or Canada, you probably remember seeing stacks of empty cage-like traps sitting on docks and boat decks, waiting for the right season. If you've had lobster before, it was most likely from Maine, which has been the largest historical national provider. We here at Sea Rocket Bistro, however, only serve local seafood, so when we started asking around, it turned out that there is another tasty species that lives just off our very own coast- the local spiny lobster.

As with most fisheries these days, the lobster fishery here in San Diego is highly regulated, including determining the season (from the first Wednesday in October until the first Wednesday after the 15th of March), outlining the areas where trapping is allowed, and establishing the size/age of catch allowed. There are about 45 lobstermen fishing the coast of San Diego at the start of the season when the catch is exponentially more plentiful, and then immediately afterwards that drops to a smaller number. Our good friend John Law took me out on his 25' skiff Thursday to watch how he works his magic. It turned out not to be magic at all, but instead a culmination of years of experience coupled with a relatively healthy lobster population. And as with all things worth doing, it requires a lot of investment (time and money), hard work, motivation, compliance, and a true joy for being on the water. John has been fishing in San Diego for over 30 years now and remains an enthusiastic and dedicated member of this fishery.

Lobster traps are made of 2" x 4" metal mesh and John's measure 14" tall by 28" wide by 36" long, which are the dimensions he has determined based on how they stack up on his boat, how heavy they are to lift and move around, and of course the appropriate size to attract and hold a bunch of lobsters! They are most often set in water depths of 50'-90', with some additional slack in the rope to avoid being moved by strong ocean currents. At the top is a custom-colored buoy so that each fisherman can recognize which traps are his, along with their license number, which is required to be etched into it as well.

The logistics of trapping go something like this. Traps will be set in the water in groups of anywhere from 10-40, spaced out by about 200'. Different groups of traps will be maintained on the same day, and you might maintain 2 or 3 groups of traps every day. Several fishermen might set a group of traps in the same geographical area that is assumed to hold lobsters, but as in any industry, there is unwritten etiquette among trappers that dictate how far away from another person's traps you should set yours, and how newcomers should ease into fishing the same areas that veterans have discovered over the years.

John has almost 300 traps in total, which he had a professional trap-builder make for him, tailored to his style of working. At the beginning of the season, he'll bait and set most of them for the first big haul- the first day of the legal lobster season which typically yields the largest catch of the entire year. Over the course of the season, he'll weed some of them out entirely and move some of them around to different areas, consolidating them where lobsters seem to be more plentiful, and spreading them out where there seem to be fewer. Since it changes year-to-year, he starts with a basic plan each October and adjusts their location day to day.

As for the process of pulling and baiting traps, it's actually very simple. You motor to an area where you have previously set traps (monitored and recorded easily via GPS), find a bouy, grab the rope with a hooked pole, attach the rope to a winch, pull it out of the water, cut off any kelp that is clinging to the trap, pull the trap onto the edge of the boat, remove and measure all of the lobsters, throwing away undersized (illegal) ones and dropping the good ones into a cooler, rebait the trap most commonly with salmon heads, and then drop the trap back into the water for the next attempt.

So how did we do? Well, we were out on the water from 7am until 2pm, and he was pulling and rebaiting traps solidly for at least 5 of those 7 hours. "We" caught 63 lobsters weighing about 78 lbs, which as John noted is "$900 from the sea to the economy." Not a bad day's work for him, but even better for us at Sea Rocket Bistro, where we get to serve up John's lobsters in our risotto. While the legal lobster season runs for almost 6 months, John will most likely stop fishing them later this year, at whatever point the balance of yield to price makes it less worth his while.

Here's a little bit more of John's biography, written by himself:
"I am an active commercial fisherman operating out of Mission Bay in San Diego, CA. 2008 is my 20th consecutive year of full time commercial fishing. I hold California limited entry permits for rock crab, spiny lobster, and deeper nearshore rockfish. I fish for rock crab, spider crab and kellets whelk from January to September, lobster from October to March, and I participate in the Federal open access groundfish fishery all year, with shelf rockfish and ling cod the main targets, plus during the closed season for coastal groundfish I fish offshore for slope rockfish. I currently own and operate a 25' work boat and employ one crew member during the crab season. In order to maximize my earnings I am also licensed as a fish receiver which allows me to self-market my catch. I sell 100% of my take to restaurants, markets and the general public. In addition I purchase product from other fishermen to meet the needs of my customers when they exceed my catch. Prior to my entry into the commercial fishing industry I worked 13 consecutive years in the California commercial party-boat fleet. My career began at age 15 and by age 19 I had received my 100 ton ocean operators license and began my role as a captain in the fleet. In 1983 I received a 500 ton operators license. I continued to work in the sportfishing industry until 1989. I am proud to say that my career has spanned more than 30 years and has brought me in contact with many members of the marine industry."

In addition to his involvement in various local fishery issues, John also spoke at our recent "Night at the Opera" event last week. If you've missed meeting him around the restaurant, he's always featured in our video footage playing at the bar, and for one of our upcoming Thursday Night Movies, we'll be showing this collective footage with sound so that everyone can finally hear what our sources have to say!

Interesting articles I found related to lobster fishing
Lobster prices take a dive
Hatching lobsters to replenish the sea