Inside The Life Of A Florida Lobster Fisherman

fishing is the number one dangerous job in the world we face a lot of adversity out there as far as weather and accidents on the boat and everything to provide that seafood for the public but uh we love it you gotta love that job first thing i'm doing i'm waiting for the buoy to come next to me is i can grab it now i'm cleaning the roof and that's that and we do that about 180 pounds in a row there's a lot going on here right now i don't know where i belong all right here we go set up ready to go i if this isn't a business that you do just because of the money you do it because you love it we personally as fishermen fish for the people that can't go fishing good morning and thanks for stopping by it is currently 5 00 a.m here in the fabulous florida keys roosters are crowned cats are all over the place and uh behind me is a commercial lobster boat and that is the experience i'm going to be sharing with you all today i should also mention that the commercial lobster industry is absolutely fascinating wild and filled with some incredible statistics for today northeast winds 10 to 50 knots seize one to two feet for tonight northeast to east winds 10 to 15 knots early increasing to 15 to 20 knots seize one to three feet see those shrimp boats back there i'm gonna be uh filming one of those as well and now we will be motoring for about the next two hours as we make it out to our first lobster trap which is about seven miles out to sea and by daybreak we will be at our very first lobster trap one of 180 traps that will be pulling out of the ocean for the day [Music] just think about where your food comes from you know it's there's a lot of work that goes into it even if you don't agree with the process or or what's being done to harvest the food but it's there and it's there for everybody and we work hard to provide it for people you know so they can enjoy it we're fishing a renewable resource it's not like oil for instance when you take it out of the ground it's gone forever yeah when you use oil this is a renewable resource my name is george niles captain and owner of the fishing vessel gnd and past president of florida keys commercial fishermen's association so i've been involved in the political side of it since 1979. if you have enough regulations in place to where before you harvest that species of fish it reproduces and replenishes itself you'll never run out of it yeah so we're basically fishing on a renewable resource we're feeding the world on renewable resources what more environmental friendly could you want than that at the back of the boat there is a puller someone who cleans the traps and measures the catch as well as a stacker the captain stays in the wheelhouse during the entire trip following the rows of traps that were set on previous trips typically the traps would be pulled emptied and then rebated going back into the water but towards the last few months of the season traps come home to be repaired and stored for next season first thing i'm doing waiting for the buoy to come next to me so i can grab it and i'm gonna grab it put it in the dab it here says my table gets back put it in the davit here ships clean the rope while it's coming up this rope here just a rope cleaner gotta wait till the trap comes up slow it down there we go that's one trap and hopefully i do all that before the next boy gets here from my own observation this is the most dangerous part of the industry i've heard horror stories of pullers losing control of their trap turning it into a lethal weapon there you go my knees are shaking wow nice cap i had a trap before come up flew up in the air crab trap flew up in there hit me a machine took my [ __ ] out almost turned black and blue for about a month this is dangerous you're not stopping hydraulics sam is the first to pull the trap and also the one who sets the pace for what's next cleveland you know clean the trampoline and the cattle fish you know i have to make sure all these fish is okay while hector is cleaning the traps he must be mindful of the massive pressure coming through that hose as that metal nozzle at the end can easily knock you out [Music] once he's finished cleaning it is his responsibility to measure out the catch and toss any back that are too small you have to make sure you you know you don't have no illegals i mean all have to be illegal they're not gonna be when it comes to things you catch unintentionally also known as bycatch you'll see the occasional conk or stone crab but because of strict regulations you won't see them much at all there you go lindsay i answered your question all right so now i'm going to do the pressure washing and do the lobster sizing geez louise man that thing is so full of pressure and so too small i don't want to mess with this too much because this is your catch i get that yeah okay i get this oh my gosh after some solid lobster wrangling i got to measure the catch feeling the pressure to make sure it was all done up to regulation and quick enough not to slow the crew down [Music] definitely the i think the price of fish is finally starting to catch up with our job yeah we used to get uh i don't know i felt like we got four dollars and fifty cents for lobster for 25 years and now with the chinese market opening up um that has basically doubled in the last 10 or 15 years i feel like we're starting to get paid what they're worth more the public is wanting fresh-caught seafood and a lot of them are willing to pay for it everybody wants cheaper food you know of course but the people are slowly becoming willing to pay more for a good product tell me how much that thing weighs okay tell me how much that thing weighs they taught me about 120 pounds okay i've been told all my life 120 pound trap and that will get stacked 180 times my role today is when samuel pull the trap head girl clean it pick it then roll it down to me i get it here i actually throw my knot in it now for the summertime it saves me one step there make sure the rope is in there nice and neat and coiled so it doesn't tangle on the way out next year and then uh down the roller to the stack and then sometimes these four highs get a little heavy but that's what we do and that's that there is no exaggerating about these traps they were super heavy and to think all of this was done on a calm day they just spent over three hours trapping and now it is time to clean up and head home [Music] stringing the buoys up so we can after we get done pulling all the traps we'll drag them behind the boat they'll come out nice and clean you ain't gonna sit there and clean them by hand no more dragon ball dragon behind the boat for a half an hour or an hour and it comes out spotless again and we take them back to the dark and this summer we'll paint them you know paint them up get them ready to put them back on the traps yeah we started pulling traps at about uh 6 30 about 6 30 7 a.m and it is uh about 1 00 p.m right now so that was a full day pulling 180 traps we were finally done by the way right there what you see there that is where all the lobster live and they keep them alive because that is what the chinese like they want them alive so that's when they make it to the dock they can take them and put them on a plane and ship the china alive now let's get back to the dock [Music] break time's over and after unloading 21 600 pounds worth of weather beam traps within 45 minutes only sacrificing a little blood and a few bruises to the greater good of the industry the lobsters are hauled over to the fish house with pride the lobsters don't know this yet but it's somewhat of a beauty contest they have entered into so what are you checking for soft ones weak ones if they're missing more than three legs they don't accept them that's because spiny lobster is a high dollar item in china and they don't cut any corners when it's presented at the dinner table out of 290 pounds 16 pounds of rejects just under 300 pounds were caught today and 95 of them are headed to the other side of the world today was considered a good day and within roughly 72 hours restaurant goers in china will be able to enjoy the fruit of the crew's incredibly hard work they received top dollar for their catch getting between eight to twelve dollars a pound and happy to have someone to sell to today but it's not always like that the coronavirus pandemic has really created a lot of uncertainty for spiny lobster fishermen not only has the price of everything gone up but selling to international buyers leaves them with no other option than to fish on a day-to-day basis not always knowing what the next day will be like they also had a few things to share about the future of this industry young people in the industry young people they know i'm 49 years old and i'm an old timer already you know i mean there's very few people coming in this industry younger than me before it used to be everybody in there everybody's kid was coming in just like i was just like george just like sammy you know we were born and raised in this industry and it's just less and less of people coming pretty soon there may not be anybody to do it it's a shame because it's a wonderful way of life believe me it's a dream living a dream every day living the dream every morning thanks for your time thank you thank you so what is the biggest threat that you and the rest of the industry faces land use uh land next to the ocean is being gobbled up to build hotels and and by people that want to live next to the water and we need a land to store all of our traps and gear next to the water and what else is there yeah you know what he bought that thank you very much okay well what is one piece of advice that you'd like to share with the world well you know my english is not so woke that's fine he wants to know if you have any advice for anybody tell anybody words of wisdom oh for the people around the world around the world words of wisdom yeah get in peace take it easy because everybody has to get it in the end take it easy easy for the world easy take it easy all right george you're next me next yeah one piece of advice you like to share with the world don't fight everybody get along i like that here we go you better follow us ah yes i do that's right george yep hector billy nice to meet you brother thank you so much thanks guys for the experience and to think all of that started with the simple hello and now we got to learn something new today hope you enjoyed thanks for watching

Channel: Scott Gerke

Views: 233,148

Keywords: commercial lobster fishing, most dangerous job in the world, florida lobster fishing, florida lobster, commercial spiny lobster, commercial lobster fishing florida keys, florida keys lobster fishing, spiny lobster fishing, commercial fishing explained, commercial lobster fishing explained, key west lobster fishing, lobster fishing, commercial fishing, spiny lobster, key west, lobster, florida keys, florida keys fishing, key west fishing, once a stranger, Scott gerke

Id: v9EusDn6RCY

Length: 15min 10sec (910 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 09 2022