After this mini-lesson, I got to thinking that I like how Cap thinks from the perspective of our prey. We are both SCUBA divers and I think that having this (underwater) perspective as a frame of reference is very helpful to fishing. First of all, it is helpful to putting yourself in the mindset of a lobster. Secondly, it is a means of directly observing how lobster gear works and behaves when submerged. All kinds of crazy experiments have been done with underwater cameras and fancy computers to monitor how rope and traps act in the water. For example, the DMR (Department of Marine Resources) has studied how float rope and sink rope behave in the water column as background for the constantly changing legislation that attempts to promote "whale safe" gear. But when you dive, you can actually see the profile of your lines, how much slack there is, how the traps are sitting on the bottom, etc. No computers necessary. This is valuable information to a fisherman.
In fact, my experience diving locally drastically changed how I think of ghost traps. "Ghost traps" are abandoned traps. They no longer have a buoy and therefore don't fish any more. They were lost when someone cut the buoy either intentionally out of vengeance or unintentionally in a propeller (or "wheel," as the fishermen call it). I previously thought of ghost traps as junk littering the ocean floor that should be cleaned up. Scrap metal. But then I went diving just off the rocks in front of my parents' cottages and witnessed ghost traps in action. They aren't trash! They are lobster habitat! I witnessed countless traps that had long since lost their vents creating large openings for lobsters, fish and crabs to enter and leave as they pleased. These wire mesh sanctuaries were overgrown with gently swaying monstrous blades of kelp and rock weed forests. It was lobster heaven! Ships are sunk to create artificial reefs. Traps are cut to create lobster hotels! Now I scoff when I read about efforts to recover ghost traps in an attempt to beautify the ocean bottom. It's a waste of money in my opinion. And where would the lobster's live?!
On my first open water dive when I was getting certified I was absolutely dumbfounded by the beauty of our New England waters. I played with lobsters to see how they moved underwater and watched them flip their tail to swim away. I marveled at the colorful diversity of algae and its graceful sway with the gentle current. At one point I looked up through the water column and was awestruck by how magnificent the sunlight looked filtering down through the waves thirty feet above. I just sat there on the sand and thought: I would be quite content dying right here right now. This is not to say that I was feeling suicidal or even that I was contemplating death at all. I was just so overcome by a feeling of peace that I could actually imagine leaving my body in that moment.
This is the world in which lobsters live. I think of that peaceful state of submerged bliss often when I am on the boat watching the traps emerge from the deep. I try to imagine the movement underwater. Everything synchronized by the ebb and flow of the ocean. All life undulating with the same pulse as the waves. I hear the sound of the underworld and see the ocean's landscape through green, irridescent, filtered light. I can't imagine how blinding the pure sunlight is to the lobsters as they wait to be plucked from the traps on the rail. How dry the air. How loud the engine sounds. If we couldn't even attempt to think like lobsters or imagine their underwater reality, how would we ever catch them?
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