Schellhase 2016 New England Trip: 10 Aug - Lobster Boat and SMSgt (ret) Tony Campbell Visit

10 Aug
Today we got up early (hey, this is vacation - you are supposed to sleep in!!!) and headed back downtown Bar Harbor to catch a ride on Lulu's lobster boat! There were about 33 people on-board, children and adults. Captain John is a licensed lobsterman and served in the French military. He is a staunch supporter of our military and offers free admission to military personnel who have served in the Middle East Conflict! Captain John is extremely knowledgeable on all facets of lobstering and has been featured on CBS, Travel Channel, PBS, Outdoor Channel and more.

Our lobster boat

Each boat has a uniquely colored bouy that is attached to the lines on the lobster trap. They have to have one displayed on top of the boat, visible 360 degrees.

Beautiful, calm day. Notice the reflection of the dock piers in the water with our boat in the background.

We chose to sit in the back, so we could see out of both sides of the boat and the rear. Captain John has the orange rubber coveralls and is at the helm. You can see the winch and pulley system they use to hoist the traps on high right. He will bring the lobsters around and explain the details so everyone can see them (we stay seated).

Great day!

On the way out we passed an island where hundreds of seals were sunning themselves.

Egg Rock Light. We passed this on our lighthouse tour a couple days ago, also. We got much closer to it today since captain John's boat is smaller.

Captain John explaining the lobster traps. They do not use wooden traps any more. Traps cost between $60-$100 each and lobstermen are limited to 800 traps in the water each.

The traps have an escape mechanism so that if the trap should come loose from the line, the wood slat will disintegrate and provide a method for escape.

The winch assembly and boom

You can see the line coming out of the water, up through the pulley, down through the winch and then it piles on the floor of the boat.

Lobstah!

Explaining the difference in the claws

They notch the tails of females when caught. When they are a certain size and bear eggs they are returned to the sea to make more baby lobsters!

One of the crabs caught in the trap. The "Washington Monument" shape on the belly indicates the gender. The sharper point is a male, I believe.

We caught five lobsters and one crab in this trap. After explaining the anatomy he pointed out the differences between and male and female. He also showed us a left-handed lobster compared to a right-handed lobster (crushing claw on different sides). That was interesting! Very few people noticed the difference right away.

Another interesting factoid - Most people go out to eat and order "lobster tail". Well, he made a point of telling us you are actually eating the abdomen!! He suggested not ordering "lobster abdomen" as no one would know what you wanted!

He suggested visiting http://www.lobsterinstitute.org to learn more about lobsters and lobstering. This was a very interesting and informative trip.

After the lobster boat tour we walked around bar Harbor and hit a few shops. This will likely be the last time we will come to downtown bar Harbor on this trip.

We headed back to the campgrounds and stopped at the food store for provisions. We had some very special guests tonight at the RV. Senior Master Sergeant (retired) Tony Campbell served with me in Iraq from 2006-2007. We had reconnected on facebook and he settled in Maine after he retired from the military. He now runs the Air Force Junior ROTC program in Brewer Maine. We met his friend Tammie and barbequed some steaks and pork chops. It was great to see him again and get caught up on where he had been and what he had done since Iraq. I humbly gave him one of my retirement coins and thanked him for his serve not only as a First Sergeant, but his continued service with the AF JrROTC cadets.