We confronted the mountain of rope in Cap's old barn reluctantly. It was the relic of long coils from fall lobstering accumulating as we took up traps and then being abandoned once shrimp trapping season began this winter. The mountain o' rope towered over us covered in spider webs and various creepy-crawlers spilling out of the dark, moist sanctuary. This didn't make it any more inviting.
Cap's approach to rope is time-intensive, yet efficient in terms of materials. Some fishermen have inshore coils and offshore coils. They splice the rope together, so that you don't have to worry about knots. Initially the splicing is an investment of time, but after that you are done! Cap, on the other hand, reuses his coils year-round. He has short coils for summer fishing, and then ties on more sink rope to the top and adds float rope to the bottom when fall rolls around and the lobsters are in deeper water. The lengths of rope are tied together using a fisherman's bend. When that knot goes through the hauler, it wears the fibers a little more each time. After a few seasons, the knot is worn enough to potentially weaken it and it's time to trim that end and retie the knot.
I suppose I should back up a bit and explain rope. There are two types of line used in fishing: sink rope and float rope. Sink rope consists of nylon as well as fibers that are finer and will actually absorb water, making the line heavy and therefore it sinks. Float rope is made of pure nylon, which floats in the water column. A line on a trap (or a pair of traps) consists of sink rope on the top (closer to the water's surface) and float rope on the bottom (closer to the ocean bottom). The sink rope is tied to the buoy and the float rope is tied to the trap's bridle. If float rope was on top, it would float on the water's surface and boats would cut lines off all the time. If sink rope was on the bottom, then it would lay on the ocean bottom and snag on rocks all the time. That is why sink is always on top and float on bottom.
The line that connects two traps in a pair is another story. There has been a major change in legislation with regard to this part of lobster gear in the past few years. The "tailor warp" between traps used to be float rope, so that it would stay off the bottom and wouldn't snag rocks. However, someone decided that this was a threat to whales, since it creates loops of rope in which they could become entangled. Therefore, regulation now mandates that tailor warps are sink rope. This may sound like a very simple change, but the implications are actually huge. See the length of the tailor warps is short enough, that it doesn't make sense to use it as float rope on your main line. This means that all lobstermen who fish pairs (that is to say the great majority of them) have a ton of float rope to dispose of and replace with sink rope. This is a very costly transition for them to make.
Cap is resourceful and spliced some tailor warps together to make a long enough float rope to use. However, that takes a lot of time and most fishermen don't want to bother. There is a woman by the name of Penny Johnston who found a good use for these old tailor warps. Fishermen donate their old float rope to her and she weaves door mats out of it. Float rope comes in all colors, so she was able to make different colorful designs. She founded the Maine Float-Rope Company, which has apparently been quite a success.
We finally eliminated Rope Mountain yesterday. Just another milestone in the endless tedium of gear work. Now we only have to paint 100 bouys, build 200 traps, set another 150 traps . . . . the list is infinite. A fisherman never rests!
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