Tag Archives: Brooks Trap Mill
Dealers scramble to supply lobstermen ahead of gear-change deadline
May 1 is the deadline for commercial lobstermen in Maine to trawl up, use weaker rope or insert weak links, and mark gear with the state color purple. But will they be ready? “Everyone’s hoping for a good year, hoping for a good price,” said Virginia Olsen, a Maine Lobstering Union Local 207 member who fishes out of Stonington. “We’re just going to do what we do. We’re gonna go to work.” But first, enough rope and weak links must come into local fishing gear stores to supply the approximately 4,500 commercial lobstermen in Maine, each of whom can haul up to 800 traps. >click to read< 13:26
Lobstermen worry looming deadline for new regulations comes ‘too soon’ to change gear
At the beginning of the year, Maine lobstermen were having a hard time finding the new gear that is being required to help protect right whales. Though suppliers are now starting to see these new weak ropes and links come in, they haven’t received a flurry of new orders despite the looming spring implementation date. Starting on May 1, lobstermen, depending on where they fish, will have to have ropes running from their buoys to traps that can break with 1,700 pounds of force, or have inserts in the line that allow it to snap easier should a whale ever get entangled in them. >click to read< 11:15
Good Samaritan raises money for couple who lost home in fire with a lobster trap fundraiser
Nov. 27 turned out to be an eventful day for local Good Samaritan Chris Hodgdon. Hodgdon was scheduled to leave his Barters Island home for back surgery at 9 a.m., but before he could leave, around 8 a.m., a neighbor’s home was on fire. His neighbors, Kelo and Gayle Pinkham, lost their home in a pre-Thanksgiving Day blaze. Hodgdon recovered from back surgery and was determined to help his neighbors. While recovering from surgery, Hodgdon began calling fishermen about assisting the Pinkhams. >click to read< 11:17
67 Years: Brooks Trap Mill – What began as a sawmill is now a major trap producer for New England and Canada
Michael Ojala, a Finnish immigrant, settled in the Thomaston area before World War II with an eye on becoming a lawyer. Back then, no schooling was required; you only needed to apprentice under a lawyer and pass the bar exam. But the lawyer Ojala was apprenticing under, a Mr. Miles, advised that he change his name; it was difficult to pronounce (OY-ah-la) and Finns weren’t too favorably looked upon (this was before the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland in 1939, after which Finns’ reputation in the U.S. did a complete one-eighty). Since “Ojala” meant “beck,” a swiftly running brook, Michael chose the last name “Brooks.” Read more
