“Sea Bugs” for Your Dining Pleasure

A group of famished patrons are seated inside a New York City restaurant. Using metal tools, they deftly break open the body armor of the huge insectlike creatures before them. Ignoring the retractable, tube-mounted eyes that seem to stare up at them from their plates, the eager diners bite into the tender, sweet meat. What are they eating? “Sea bugs”​—more commonly known as lobsters.

 WHY are lobsters called sea bugs? Fishermen could not help but note the resemblance to insects when these hard-shelled sea creatures crawled along the decks of their boats.

But there is another similarity. During the 1700’s, lobsters covered the northeast coastline of the United States like swarms of insects. These crustaceans were caught and spread on fields as fertilizer. They were used as fishing bait. They were fed to prison inmates. In those days, lobsters were so commonplace that a group of upset indentured servants in that region won a legal judgment decreeing that they would not be fed lobster more than three times a week!

In contrast, for distant city dwellers, lobster was a rare treat. Why? Because after its death, a lobster decays rapidly and cannot be preserved by salting or drying. By the mid-1800’s, however, producers started canning lobsters, and thus more people were able to enjoy their delicious flavor. In addition, the arrival of railroads made it possible to ship live lobsters across the United States. As a result, demand for lobster spiked. Still, transporting fresh lobster was expensive, and thus it was a luxury to be enjoyed only by the wealthy.

Today fishermen catch varieties of lobster along coastlines throughout the world. The American lobster can be found in the Atlantic Ocean from Newfoundland to North Carolina. A major international source of lobsters is Maine, in the northeastern United States. From there, cooked and live lobsters are exported around the world. Suppliers may transport as much as 80,000 pounds (36,287 kg) of lobster in a single aircraft.

Corporations often mass-produce profitable global food products. But this is not so with lobster. For the most part, lobster fishermen are self-employed local residents. They do not artificially farm the lobsters in hatcheries but travel to the lobsters’ habitat​—in this case, the Atlantic Ocean.

How to Catch a Lobster

How do lobster fishermen catch their prey? To answer that question, Awake! spoke with Jack, a fourth-generation lobster fisherman in Bar Harbor, Maine. Jack began fishing at the age of 17, and he works in the same bay as did his great-grandfather. Jack’s wife, Annette, is also in the business. “I married  into fishing,” she says. “For two years I was an apprentice on Jack’s boat, and later I bought my own.”

How do Jack and Annette trap lobsters? “We take a lobster pot, a rectangular metal cage with a small opening,” Annette explains, “and inside it we put a mesh bag full of bait, typically herring.” The fishermen attach each trap to a buoy. “The fishermen each paint their buoys a different color so that later they can be identified,” Annette says.

Once the trap is thrown overboard, it sinks to the bottom of the ocean, and the color-coded buoy floats above it so that the fishermen can readily locate their traps. “We let the traps soak in the water for a few days,” says Annette, “and then we go back and haul them aboard. When a lobster is inside, we take it out and measure it.” Conscientious fishermen like Jack and Annette return small lobsters to the ocean; some female lobsters are also set free to produce more young.

Next, the fishermen head for nearby docks to sell their live harvest. Aside from some groups working collectively, there are no signed contracts​—just local fishermen selling to local handlers. As mentioned earlier, lobster fishing has largely escaped the practice of artificial farming. “Some lobstermen have been given permission to bring in egg-bearing females,” Jack says. “They hatch the eggs and raise them for a short time and then release them into the water. This practice increases the lobsters’ survival rate.”

Lobster fishing may not be the easiest way to make a living or the best way to become rich. But if you ask these fishermen, they will speak of other rewards​—the freedom of owning their own small business or of continuing a community and family tradition or of having the pleasure that comes from living and working on the coastline. Best of all, it brings deep satisfaction to these fishermen to know that their precious catch of “sea bugs” will be enjoyed by hungry diners all over the world.

[Box/​Picture on page 12]

THE HAZARDS OF LOBSTER FISHING

Lobster fishing might seem to be a safe profession. But it is not. For example, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) says that “from 1993 to 1997, the occupational fatality rate for lobstermen in Maine was 14 per 100,000 licensed lobstermen, more than 2.5 times the national average (4.8 per 100,000 workers) for all industries.”

According to NIOSH, a U.S. Coast Guard investigation found that “lobstermen often become entangled in loose line on deck, are pulled overboard by the traps, and drown when they cannot free themselves from the line or are unable to reboard the vessel.” In a survey of 103 lobster fishermen, conducted from 1999 to 2000, nearly 3 out of 4 reported that at some point they had become entangled by trap line, although not all were pulled overboard. Safety measures have been recommended so that lobster fishermen could either have the tools to cut themselves free or prevent entanglement in the first place.

[Pictures on pages 10, 11]

1. Jack hauls up the lobster trap

2. Annette and Jack remove the lobsters through a small opening in the metal cage

3. Each lobster is measured with a lobster gauge