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You Never Know



Lobstermen have used a range of bait over the years. In recent decades Atlantic herring has become the bait of availability, if not of most popular first choice. Redfish, pogies and alewives have a lot of fans, but consistent availability and price are problems. Skate is now a bait fish along with a few others new to the bait rack.

The coming cuts to Atlantic herring quota for 2019-2021 will soon be released. Some estimates are large cuts. Whatever the size of the cut to quota, the price of bait will go up beyond the expensive it already is.

Some dealers are certain that there will be bait available. An Eastern Maine dealer said he could go to Canada for herring. Some fishermen are looking at alternative species and alternative bait products. One dealer said they were confident there will be some kind of bait available, they also thought the bait supply could be the least of the industry’s problems. This, given the warmer water temperatures in the Gulf of Maine and the many ways fish are responding to it.

The profit motive could lead to innovations in bait use in both method and type. There may be alternative means out there. At one time lobster were picked off the beach at low tide, now they are hauled from deep water 100 miles offshore. The means have changed.

The emergence and use of alternative baits seems the most probable in the near term. Fishermen are likely the only ones with enough knowledge of the gear and the fishing grounds to come up with innovations in those areas. There is profit motive in a $500 million industry for delivering effective and possibly plentiful bait. Enough motive to bring a large number of minds to bear.

Bait supply and price are not new to the lobster industry. Some of the science and technology used to study marine resources are new. It may be a marine biologist far removed from fishing who comes up with the bait equivalent of coated trap wire. Jim Knott was neither a fisherman nor a marine scientist. He fished a few lobster traps as a kid in Gloucester. He invented coated wire specifically for lobster traps and still makes it at River-dale Mills. You never know.