Tag Archives: Downeast Fishing Gear in Trenton

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