In This Edition - Summer 2004

 

 

 

Herb Hodgkins Receives Yankee Magazine's Barn Raiser Award

     “Well, I think we just cured a lobster.”

     With those words, he was hooked…..and Herb Hodgkins has been a volunteer with the University of Maine and the Lobster Institute ever since…for nearly thirty years.  And now, the Lobster Institute is pleased to announce that Yankee Magazine has recognized Herb for his years of dedicated volunteerism by selecting him to receive their 2004 Barn Raiser Award.

     According to Yankee Magazine, “This prestigious award honors the spirit of old-time barn raisings, when people joined hands to create New England’s communities.  It is presented to those who personify the best of the volunteer spirit.”

     The Lobster Institute celebrated Herb’s Barn Raiser Award at a reception on Tuesday, August 24 in Bunkers Harbor, Maine.  Ken Philips from Yankee Magazine was on hand to make the presentation.

Herb’s first volunteer work with Dr. Bob Bayer of the University of Maine was in the mid 1970s.  It involved helping to find a cure for gaffkemia or “red tail” disease – a bacterial menace that was infecting lobsters being held in tidal pounds.  As an owner of a tidal pound, and the founder of the Maine Lobster Pound Association this was an area of vital concern to Herb as

well as many others in lobstering communities in Maine and throughout the North Atlantic Seaboard.   Dr. Bayer had a trial vaccine (developed by one of his former students, Dr. Jim Rittenburg) that needed to be tested, and Herb offered the use of his pound and his lobsters for the trials.  Herb, Dr. Bayer, and several University of Maine students hand-injected hundreds of lobsters with the vaccine.  Herb diligently checked the lobsters and recorded observations until that day when Dr. Bayer finally announced, “Well I think we just cured a lobster.”

     With that, Herb became one of the University of Maine’s and the Lobster Institute’s most dedicated and longstanding volunteers.  In fact, in the mid-1980s Herb played an integral part in the formation of the Lobster Institute.  In 1987, the Lobster Institute was formed, and an all-volunteer Board of Advisors was recruited.  Herb served as the first vice chairman of that group – a post he has held to this day. 

     Herb rarely misses a meeting and has volunteered on several sub-committees.  He and his wife Pat have been helping to organize the Lobster Institute’s annual luncheon for friends and contributors for the past seven years.  They even roll up their sleeves to cook and serve the lobster feast for everyone!

Herb has been involved in many research projects over the years, contributing his lobsters, his equipment, his time, or all of these.  He has worked on several Lobster health studies; he stores and maintains the Lobster Institute’s research vessel, the RV Blackfly; he has been a speaker at Lobster Institute community presentations and at Lobster College.  His most recent volunteer activity involves studies on alternative soy-based lobster bait. 

     Herb’s commitment and reliability as a volunteer continues to set the standard for both the Lobster Institute and for the lobster industry.  His many other volunteer efforts include service to his home community of Hancock, Maine; the Maine Lobster Pound Association; and the Frenchman Bay Conservancy.                                              z

  Herb Hodgkins injecting 
   a lobster with vaccine.

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Lobster Band Testing One of First Projects Tackled by the Lobster Institute

     Did you know that one of the first quick-response problem solving projects undertaken by the Lobster Institute was a test on the quality differences between lobster claw bands from various manufacturers?  This testing was described in the very first issue of the Lobster Bulletin in November of 1987.  The article was entitled, “The Stretch Test or Keeping Claws Closed”.

The article read as follows:

     “Recently, tests were initiated to determine the differences in quality between lobster claw bands from seven different manufacturers. University of Maine Professor John Riley of the Agricultural Engineering Department says that preliminary stretch tests have been conducted in the laboratory to test the elasticity of each band.

     The second stage of the project involved attaching the bands to lengths of PVC pipe with a standard banding instrument. The pipes were tied together on a line and are currently hanging off the pier in Southwest Harbor. Once a month, the pipes will be pulled from the water for a test sample. The sampling will continue through April of 1988.  When the data is analyzed, Riley hopes to determine if quality differences exist between various manufacturers and also between different batches from the same manufacturer. Specifically, he will be checking to see if band deterioration is time-dependent and also if it relates to water temperature change.  This is the first of the quick-response problem-solving projects that has been suggested by the Maine Lobster Institute. The work is being funded by the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station through the Fisheries and Aquaculture Research Group.”                                                                             z         

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Lobster Institute C.O.R.E. Campaign Announces the Creation of the Herbert O. Hodgkins Lobster Research Fund


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 ResearchReport

Readers may contact the Lobster Institute for more detailed information on any of the projects reported.    

      v    Improving the Quality and Survival of Live Shipped Lobsters –  Dr. Beth Calder, a Lobster Institute cooperating research associate, and Dr. Robert Bayer, Lobster Institute Executive Director have completed preliminary studies on a method to improve survival and quality of live-shipped lobsters.  Various techniques of treating lobsters with a specially formulated solution were employed.

Collaborators included Sunshine Seafoods, Inc.  of Stonington, Maine, and fishermen from the Swans Island Lobster Co-op.  The Maine Technology Institute, Maine Sea Grant, and private sources provided funding for these initial trials.   The concept shows promise, and further studies are being planned for the fall, including observing the treated lobsters under simulated commercial shipping conditions.

Jake Sprague of Swans Island
    assists with testing. 

v     Environmental Data on Lobsters – Tracy Vassiliev, a Lobster Institute Cooperating Research Associate and science teacher in the Bangor, Maine schools, has begun working with the Lobster Institute on an analysis of the level of heavy metals found in healthy lobsters from throughout New England. This information will help researchers begin to define ranges for these metals, which may be one piece of the puzzle of identifying what constitutes a “healthy” lobster. Vassiliev obtained funding through the NSF Sensor Program’s Research Experience for Teachers for the eight-week project, and coordinated her research through Dr. John Vettelino, Dr. William Congleton and Dr. Bob Bayer at the University of Maine.

Results of this study should be available in the Fall.   A $2,000 grant from the Knox and Waldo County Funds through the Maine Community Foundation will allow for additional analysis.

As the project progresses and funding allows, the Lobster Institute hopes to expand the sampling of lobsters and collaborate with technicians at the University of Maine’s Food Safety Laboratory and Sawyer Research Center on an expanded analysis.

v     Canadian/U.S. Lobstermen’s Town Meeting  Report Available On-line – In April of this year the Lobster Institute hosted a town meeting style gathering of lobstermen from Canada and the United States.  The town meeting focused on the fishermen’s view of the status of the resource and directions for future research (see article in Spring 2004 Lobster Bulletin). 

     A summary report of the event is now available on-line at the Lobster Institute’s Web site at www.lobsterinstitute.org.  The summary covers the town meeting as well as breakout sessions on water quality, lobster health, nutrition and the food chain, gauge measure as a conservation tool, and the biology and life cycle of the lobster. A complete written or audio-taped transcript of the town meeting is also available by contacting the Institute at 207-581-1443 or emailing jean.day@umit.maine.edu.

v     Oral History Project Continues – The Lobster Institute continues to add to its collection of videotaped interviews with some of the industries most seasoned lobstermen.  Over a dozen interviews have been conducted to-date, with a growing list of future interview candidates.  These interviews are recording amazing stories and comparisons of the lobster industry of the 30s, 40s and 50s to the modern day fishery.  The project is ongoing as time and funding allows.  All tapes will eventually be catalogued at the Folklife Center at the University of Maine, and a long-range goal is to put together a composite video that will be both educational and entertaining.  The Lobster Institute is available to present an hour-long program on the history of the lobster industry that includes video clips and quotes from these interviews.                                                                                                    z  

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Dateline 1939 -- Trouble for Seals

(Excerpts from the July 4, 1939 edition of the Courier Gazette, reprinted with permission from Courier Publications.  Thanks to Al McNeilly of Owls Head for bringing these articles to our attention.)

Are Now Known To Be a Great Menace
to Maine’s Lobster Industry

     For years lobster fishermen have believed that seals are one of the greatest menaces to their industry and now the Department of Sea and Shore Fisheries has proven this to be true.  An investigation directed by Commissioner Arthur R. Greenleaf has revealed that lobsters are a favorite food of the mammals and that they probably eat thousands of pounds yearly.  Herring, striped bass, Atlantic salmon and other species are also known to be destroyed in great quantities throughout the spring and summer months.

     Greenleaf has examined the stomach contents of several dozen seals, being killed on many sections of the coast.  In nearly all instances the remains of from one to three lobsters were found with many of them being of legal size.  At least 20 other species of fish were found.

     Later this month a statewide bounty on the mammals in all coastal counties except York will go into effect.

     Greenleaf is trying to find ways to utilize the bodies on a commercial basis.  Experiments are now being made in an attempt to use the hides as leather for various articles, to extract oil and to prepare the flesh as food for dogs, cats, and animal farms.

Editor’s Note:  In a later article that same month; the Courier Gazette reported that a bounty of $1 per seal did, indeed, go into effect on July 21, 1939.                            z

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Norwegian Bounty on American Lobsters

     The BBC reported earlier this year that an aquarium in Bergen, Norway was offering a reward of 1,000 Kroner  - or about $137 - for every American lobster, Homarus americanus, caught in Norwegian waters.  The intent was to help prevent an invasion of the non-native crustaceans, which were considered a potential lobster pest.  The bounty was on top of a payment of 350 Kroner per kilogramme ($48) that local fish stores were paying for a lobster – one of the more costly seafood items on the market. The bounty was a result of a survey indicating that imported American lobsters have spread from Oslo, in the south, far up the Norwegian coast. 

     The report further indicated that fourteen American lobsters have been caught off Norway since 1999.  Some experts believe that they escaped from cages after being imported from the U.S. state of Maine and placed in shallow waters to keep them fresh before being cooked.

     According to the owner of the aquarium offering the bounty, Kees Ekeli, “Our fear is that American lobsters can only mate when they change their shell, which they do when they’re younger.  If they mate in the U.S. and then come to Norway two years later, the females could bring as many as 5,000 eggs with them.”

     Restaurateurs in Norway are quoted as saying that the indigenous lobster, Nephrops norvegicus, is far superior in taste to the American variety.                                    z

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A Lobster in Any Language

French………… Homard

German……….. Hummer / Zeekreft

Italian…………. Astici

Spanish…………Bogavante

 

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