Sea Rose Trap Moves to Larger Facility

by Mike Crowe

There are a lot of lobster traps in New England waters, but not a lot of lobster trap builders.

Maine has by far the most lobstermen and it was not so very long ago that there were a lot of lobster trap builders. Before the invention of the wire lobster trap, traps were made of wood and a lot of lobstermen built their own traps.

The Anderson company in Yarmouth, Maine, was one of the largest companies building wood lobster traps until the 1980s. It has been reported that the gigantic building they occupied had just one small door on one wall where every 2-1/2 minutes a wood trap would come out the door and slide down a chute. Their attempt to transition to the coated wire trap ultimately failed in the 1990s.

Other than being more complicated and too special-tool-dependent to be practical for a fisherman to build for his own use, the advantages of the wire trap are many. They last longer, fish in difficult conditions, can be larger, and the materials and building techniques continue to improve.

Don Jackson was lobster fishing out of Portland, Maine, in the early 1990s, where he had made his own wood lobster traps since he started fishing in 1975. Around that time he tried making a recently introduced wire lobster trap. Fellow lobstermen asked him to make a few for them to try. Soon there were orders for more, which included tweaks each fisherman thought would work better. Changes a lobsterman like Don could easily understand were important. By1993 he was making wire lobster traps commercially.

Sea Rose Trap’s fisherman-based business model—custom traps, embracing the newest equipment and technology to produce a better product—may have been what the Anderson Company missed. “Demand for our traps has continued to grow,” said Jackson. The company is moving to a larger location in South Portland where they will have 12,000 square feet of manufacturing space and 5 acres of outdoor storage. The new location is at 120 Breakwater Annex, South Portland, across from South Portland Community College. Jackson is already planning the construction of a larger building in Biddeford, anticipating another move in 3 years.

Jackson said the company’s success is a result of their commitment to quality and on-site custom trap building. “We are focused on being innovative, creative and progressive. The company incorporates the newest technology, materials and techniques to build continuously better traps.”

Don’s son Adam said, “This is a family-owned business. We are from a fishing family, rather than a business background. We build to the specific custom requirements of our customers because we know how important it is for them to have the traps they want. We want the traps we build to fish because we want return customers.”

When many lobstermen were building their own traps they could easily customize them, maybe building them the way their father or grandfather built them while adding their own tweaks. Being able to order these details in a wire trap is an important part of the transaction.

One reason for keeping up with changing technology is to cut production time. Most customers today expect to get their trap order more quickly. “It used to be that trap orders were placed in October and picked up in April,” said Don. That has changed, and to meet these shorter turn-around times new tools and equipment are deployed. “To better serve our customers for faster turnaround times on kits, cages and completed traps we stock a lot of wire in rolls and panels. Customers can check our Facebook page for weekly updates of what kits, cages or completed traps are available”, said Don.

Creativity at Sea Rose led to a unique furniture product line which features the Lobstah Rockah. Made with all-commercial lobster trap materials, including trap wire, these rocking chairs and some of the other furniture items now in the line are being sold all over the country (lobstahrockah.com). Don originally built one for himself in 2006 and then built one for Jim Knott, the inventor of coated lobster trap wire, promoter of the product in the 1990s, and owner and president of Riverdale Mills in Northbridge, Mass.

Sea Rose uses Riverdale Aquamesh coated wire exclusively. “There was no sense going overseas when there was a superior product available regionally,” said Adam. Sea Rose Trap is an exclusive distributor for Riverdale Mills, manufacturer of patented coated wire products, and “the brand of choice among lobster fishermen,” said Don. “Riverdale Mills is bringing the 2”x2” 10 ga wire with 2”x1” intergrated bottoms back into production. It was very popular years ago for it’s ability to stay on bottom during rough seas, let small lobsters escape, and featured 10 ga. durability” said Don.

“Sea Rose Trap,” said Jackson, “is also the New England distributor of Fitec twine, stocking over 400 bales of #21, #24, and #27 twine in a range of colors.Using quality materials throughout the building process adds life to a lobster trap, he said. Quality fasteners, attachment methods, runners, weights, and twine add up to durability that reduces failure at any point that could disable the trap, said Don.

Sea Rose has developed improved parts in their traps. Ergo blocks are plastic-coated 4-pound steel bars with a hand grip that has replaced the commonly used red building brick. They also use weighted plastic runners that sink, unlike oak, in addition to the cement and composite runners they make. All are impervious to the sea worms that eat traditional oak runners.

The new Sea Rose Trap facility is at 120 Breakwater Annex, South Portland, ME 04106. Trap shop 207-730-5531; Don Jackson 207-730-2063 cell; Adam Jackson 207-730-1651 cell; Production: Eric Leduc 207-653-6195 cell.