Friday morning (the 16th) came early. After a couple of days of bad weather and interloping Nova Scotia lobstermen, the Grand Manan lobster fishermen were ready to start the 8-month fishing season. It was still quite dark when I got to the quay but already the harbour was abuzz with activity as boat crews put the finishing touches on their loads of traps and buoys and prepared to cast off lines. At 6:50 we left the dock, just as a DFO plane went over taking pictures of the harbour, ensuring that no boats left early.

At 6:57 there were 21 fishing boats lined up across the mouth of Seal Cove harbour, watched closely by loved ones and interested onlookers on the wharf. Although 7:00 AM was the “magic” time – the time for the boats to set out for their respective favourite fishing areas – one boat revved its engines and set out at 6:59 causing the rest of the boats to head out to. In the early morning dusk 21 boats fanned out to speed to favourite and, in some cases, long-used traditional lobster grounds.

The boat I was on, Day’s Catch, was skippered by Peter Wilcox. He was going to an area that had been “handed down” to him by his father, himself a fisherman. While Peter manned the helm for the hour and a half trip out toward Bull Rock, the rest of the crew sat back and just chatted and, as the day lightened, looked for birds. Or, at least, first mate Durlan Ingersoll and myself looked for birds (while we all chatted). Durlan is the first mate both during the lobster season and for the Summer whale watching cruises. He’s become well known on the coast as a “seabird guy”. The rest of the crew was made up by Stephen and Leroy. Although just turning 30, Stephen has worked half his life on boats, fishing on both the east and west coasts. Leroy, whose father was a fisherman and who did some fishing early on, takes a 2-week “vacation” from his regular job each year to make some extra money lobstering. Everyone then (except me) was an experienced fisherman.

Soon enough the dark turned to gray and then to enough light to identify birds in the distance: Common Loons and Eiders, Kittiwakes and Herring Gulls, Common Murres and Razorbills. Durlan and I talked about rarities and possibilities, about pelagic birding trips past and future.

Before long we were over the area Peter felt was the best – it looked no different than the rest of the huge expanse of ocean all around us but, for Peter, this was it. And it was now that the experience of tried fishermen came to the fore. We had 195 traps to deploy as quickly as possible so we could head back to Seal Cove and pick up another 180 (a licence entitles the holder to set 375 traps). To be efficient, the baited 80-lb traps need to be pulled off stacks and lined up on deck for a smooth attachment to anchored trawl lines with marker buoys and floats at each end. They are then pulled into the water one by one as the boat motors along on its chosen course, each separated by 120 feet of line. Fifteen traps to each trawl. One screw up, one tangled line and the whole system grinds quickly to a halt. But this was the beauty of experience: each trap was put in place and attached to the line and entered the water without a hitch. But, man, it’s hard, heavy work: wrestling traps into place and attaching them to the lines and getting them into the water in the right order. Preparation is the key. Stephen worked for two months splicing and coiling the miles of rope required for the trawls and bundling each trap’s rope into wire bins for safe untangled keeping and easy deployment.

I have never been bothered by seasickness but toward the end of this first batch of traps I came close. As I said, the wind had dropped from previous days but it was still blowing at 10-15 knots. Just when we were finishing up, the tide turned and it began to blow against the changing flow, kicking up a chop that I found “uncomfortable”. When we finished we started to head back to Seal Cove and Peter pulled out the sandwiches and baked goodies that his wife, Kenda, makes for the first day “celebration”. (In fact, the inside of the cabin looked not unlike the banding lab on a good baking day – sandwiches, several kinds of homemade cookies and cinnamon buns with fresh coffee to wash it down.) At this point I wasn’t feeling “great” but I don’t want anyone to feel unappreciated by turning down their hard work, so I dug into half a sandwich and some coffee and, lo and behold, my queasiness disappeared and I was able to pay real tribute to the goodies at hand….thank goodness!

Back in Seal Cove we had to load another 180 traps. But, before we could do that, they had to be baited. Again, experience comes to the fore. As Stephen pointed out: when it comes to baiting, he is a master. Leroy would bring a trap down from the piles already stacked on the quay and put it in place; Durlan would open it; Stephen would take 2 mesh bags filled with fish heads and attach them tightly inside the trap; Durlan would then re-fasten the trap and hand it down to Peter and I on the back of the boat; we would then stack them carefully 6 or 7 high taking up almost all of the back deck by the time we were done. (We were fortunate that, each time we loaded traps, the tide was high and we were able to simply pass them down a short way from the wharf to the deck. If the tide had been low, each trap would have had to have been lowered 28+ feet with a rope and hook. I was trying to imagine standing underneath it with juices from the fish heads dripping down on me….) In less than an hour, we had the 180 traps ready to go, Kenda had replenished the baked goods, and we were headed back out to sea.

This time placing the traps took a lot more time because instead of being just a series of 15-trap trawls (i.e., 15 traps attached to a single long rope) we placed about 60 single traps, each with its own buoy. But when that was done, it was back to setting trawls and it was then that I got my moment in the sun. In practical terms a trawl works like this: when the skipper is where he wants to be, the trawl anchor is kicked over along with a marker buoy (each distinctly marked to identify whose it is) and a large balloon-like float. The rope begins to run out and every 120 feet a trap is attached until the end is reached with another anchor and buoy and balloon float. Now each one of these things is attached to the line by a “hook” – a round piece of metal that looks like a thick chain link except that it has a bevelled cut through it on one side. If you line the cut of one link up to the cut on another link you can join them securing the trap or buoy or anchor to the trawl line. For one trawl I got a chance to “hook” the traps to the trawl line. Although you had the time it takes 120 feet of line to run out to attach the next hook, it was still a little nerve wracking: what if, for some strange reason, they didn’t attach….and the whole system ground to a halt and you had to retrieve the whole lot and start over…..? But my hooking, though brief, was a success (and I’m kinda thinking that those traps were likely going to catch more lobsters than any of the others….).

Finally, as the sun was sinking, we kicked the last anchor into the sea and the boat headed for home. For awile we were able to sit back and take in the glorious sunset colours and a new crescent moon and just relax. But not for too long. The deck needed to be hosed, the starboard side rail taken down, and hardware for the coming days put up and attached. Back in Seal Cove, in the dark, a sorting table, 10 or so bins of fish heads (for rebaiting the mesh bags) and empty plastic crates for the lobsters had to be loaded. We finally finished around 7:30 and headed for our respective homes. Me to get ready for the long drive back to York and the rest of the crew to get a little shut-eye before heading out the next day to begin hauling in lobsters. It had been a great day. And I was glad, very glad, to get a taste of it. It’s hard physical work, often in very trying conditions, and for not very much money – the price of lobster for the fishermen is just $3.00-$3.25 per pound, down from where it had been just a couple of years ago. (Since the price in restaurants has been going up and up each year, you have to wonder who is getting the money. Certainly not the guys that work so hard and tempt fate each time they head out.)

Rick