Velera wrote:
Not sure why you resisting. My lobster fisher friends say they expect to lose a few and tag some themselves. I have a shark cutter and it work great. I sail Penobscot area all season and usually only snag one that I have to snap. I have a feathering prop and lock it--so most of the time I can just let it go in neutral and the pot falls off. You may also know that the lobster fishermen are using a newer technique of tying longer lines of their traps together. This means losing one buoy is not necessarily the loss of a trap. Also, few buoys needed on a line.
Ray Durkee
At $100/trap or more, plus line & floats, a 10 trap string is easily over $1,000.00. I resist out of respect. I grew up in Sandy Point. With a couple of notable exceptions in Rockland, I'd respect and try to salvage gear if I had to cut it off my prop shaft. Tie floats back on lines and toggles. Family members and friends were lobstermen, and just cutting people off without thinking twice isn't quite cricket. I'll admit, thousands do it annually and couldn't care less. But the last multi-trap string I had to cut off in the South end of the Reach I felt pretty bad. But you got guys out there that think "I got cutters, so I can go anywhere without worry." Give the Darmiscotta a run up to E. Boothbay some time. I've done it at night in a thunderstorm with a 12 year old on the bow calling the shots. Harrowing.