How Lobster goes from the sea to your plate

ExFishermanBob · 07-15-14, 01:14 PM

We used to keep a few lobsters back each week (particularly in summer) and keep them in boxes in the sea (on moorings) so that we'd have plenty to sell come the week before Christmas, when the off-the-boat price was very high indeed. You could get caught out if you couldn't get to the mooring because of a force 9 (the buyers usually came only once a week).
It was always tough because the funds were tight in the summer - but we could usually catch our bait rather than buy it at that time of year (plus you could always eat the bait, if it was fresh).

From the Hebrides, lobsters tend to go to Spain and the med, along with velvet crab (which are a handy by-catch, previously discarded) and the green shore-crabs, which also used to be a by-catch, prawns (langoustine) and crayfish.

We used to hand-haul backs of a dozen creels, set at 20 fathoms, with 20 fathoms between them - we couldn't afford a hydraulic hauler. We would always put large (and therefore tasteless) and female lobsters back, to preserve the stocks.

Times are hard, though - the last time I was back at Otternis, there wasn't a single boat on a mooring, not one. And on Berneray na Hearadh, I saw fewer boats in the harbour last year.

I think I'll take a few creels onto U51 and drop them as we pass North Uist.

07-15-14, 01:14 PM	#13
ExFishermanBob Difficulties Numbing Join Date: Aug 2013 Location: AN19 Posts: 470 Downloads: 43 Uploads: 0	We used to keep a few lobsters back each week (particularly in summer) and keep them in boxes in the sea (on moorings) so that we'd have plenty to sell come the week before Christmas, when the off-the-boat price was very high indeed. You could get caught out if you couldn't get to the mooring because of a force 9 (the buyers usually came only once a week). It was always tough because the funds were tight in the summer - but we could usually catch our bait rather than buy it at that time of year (plus you could always eat the bait, if it was fresh). From the Hebrides, lobsters tend to go to Spain and the med, along with velvet crab (which are a handy by-catch, previously discarded) and the green shore-crabs, which also used to be a by-catch, prawns (langoustine) and crayfish. We used to hand-haul backs of a dozen creels, set at 20 fathoms, with 20 fathoms between them - we couldn't afford a hydraulic hauler. We would always put large (and therefore tasteless) and female lobsters back, to preserve the stocks. Times are hard, though - the last time I was back at Otternis, there wasn't a single boat on a mooring, not one. And on Berneray na Hearadh, I saw fewer boats in the harbour last year. I think I'll take a few creels onto U51 and drop them as we pass North Uist.