If fishing for lobster can be in the blood, then it’s in Ralph Boyington’s. He’s part of a long line and large family of fishermen in Waldoboro, something he’s passed on to his children. His granddaughter Erica works on his boat, and his grandson Dustin captains his own boat. For nearly a decade, his daughter Veronica worked as a sternman on his boat, followed by his daughter Tricia who now who now fishes with David Reed out in Criehaven. Ralph also lost a son, ‘Bubba,’ when the scalloping boat he’d been working on, the ‘Candy B II,’ disappeared in the seas south of Nantucket. Ralph began like a lot of children here. As a toddler, he went out with his stepfather Fernald. While he often slept in the bow of the boat, he was still learning about lobstering. When he was big enough to haul, he went out with his uncle Andy. They worked all seasons, lobstering, or in winter, clamming in the flats up and down the Medomak and along the coast as far as Vinalhaven. Ralph worked this way into his teens, and then he was drafted into the Army. When he got back from Vietnam, he returned straight to lobstering, and for himself this time. It was a lot of work. Traps then were made of wood. Each one required hooding, piece by piece. When he was done, he set out his trademark pink-on-top, green-on-bottom buoys. In time, he saved enough to buy his own boat, which he named ‘Charlene,’ after his wife. She was a wooden boat, and she held strong for a lot of years until little leaks began to turn into big ones, and finally it was time to retire her. Ralph traded up for the ‘Sandollar,’ a fiberglass boat but with her own set of problems. With the price of lobsters plummeting this year (selling for $3/pound from last year’s $7), and the rising costs of bait ($250 for a daily barrel) and diesel ($50 for a tank), some fishermen pulled up their traps up as early as July. Others decided to sit out the season entirely. But not Ralph. Despite the economics, he set out 420 traps of the 800 he owns. At 74 years old, he can’t imagine doing anything else.
Been going out to Western Egg Rock with the traps my whole life. Yup. But way back when I started with my stepfather, I used to go upriver with him — way up Broad Cove, and way up and down Gross Neck. Yup. Know every part of this river like the back of my hand. Been at it a long while.
I know where the lobsters are coming in, what time of year, where they’re going to be. I don’t know how I know, I just know. They’re constantly moving. That’s why we move the traps. Every day we move some. You have to. When the lobsters shed their shells, they’re hungry, so they head out for food. ’Course, my traps are already far out. But even out there we keep moving the traps. People might question it, but I just tell ’em, “You watch. They’re coming in here.” And the lobsters always do. Now that their shells are getting harder, they’re coming back in, so we’re moving the traps in again. But come winter, they’ll go deep. Yup. Or find a hole.
There isn’t a part of lobstering that I don’t like. Well, the worst part is rigging the traps. Spring is when I get to that, getting them ready. But it’s extra work now because of the whales. But there haven’t been whales up in here, never have been. I think maybe years and years ago, someone saw a whale out by Egg Rock — but not since, not one. And if there’d been a sighting, we’d have heard. There’s always people out there.
But with the new rules, it takes time to tie all the knots, put everything inside the trap that it needs. We have to put in new ring hooks, new netting, and new tags every year. If you know what you’re doing, you can do maybe five traps in a half hour. But the older you get, the harder it gets. That’s another reason I didn’t get all the traps out. I just gave up on the rigging. The arthritis in my hands got me. My knees are gone, too. And my back.
We were late this year. Usually, I put in by the end of May and pull out in October. I don’t have a winter job. Ha, ha, I’m retired. Yup.
In a few more weeks I’ll be pulling my traps for the season. Might take a week. And then we’re done for the year. But it’s been a hard year. The price is no good. And the lobsters are getting harder to catch. I think they’ve moved further and further out. Either that, or they’re holed up in the mud. We’ve had a lot of days this year where we don’t haul that much. Course, we have our good days, too. But they’re not as many. And with the prices of bait and stuff, there ain’t no money in it. Nope. It’s not a good year.
I wouldn’t do anything else, though. I love it. We go every day. You see a lot. Out by Egg Rocks, there’s a big old sunfish out there and she’s been there for years.
Whatever is out there in the ocean, we catch. Little fish. Squid, maybe. Stone crabs. Blue crabs. Jellyfish, even. When I pull in a trap, I dump it all in the tank to see what comes up. Yup. ’Cause with each trap you bring up, you never know what you’re going to get. I like that.
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