Many of our fishermen have been pulling up their lobster traps and bringing them ashore for winter storage.
It’s another one of those bittersweet Fall turning points like seeing colorful leaves falling, but in reverse – seeing colorful traps leaving the summer residences that they've enjoyed since June. They're going back on the decks of our good-looking fishing vessels to be hauled and stacked and soon, perhaps, covered again by water in the form of snow.
As to how good a season it was, the catch (“lobster landings”) data won’t be published by the State until 2020. From the unofficial reports that we’ve seen, Spring started slowly and landings never picked up enough to match the past few years of very good catches. However, when compared to overall historical averages, 2019 might be viewed as a reasonably good year. Let’s hope so. (Brooklin, Maine)