Bar Harbour life

Bass harbor ferry

The other side of the island is called the quiet side which is mainly filled with lobster fishermen and displaced artists. There are many smaller islands that are also home to many fishing families. There is a ferry that services the surrounding islands and carries kids to school on the mainland on a daily basis. It's a bit harsh in the winter especially on the islands that head straight into the Atlantic winds. 

Defunct kipper factory closed 1962

The lobster business is huge here and growing. Unlike cod and herring fishing which has long since collapsed due to overfishing, lobster fishing has become very sustainable mainly due to the way they are ‘farmed’ . Thousands of baited lobster pots saturate the sea bed around the Island and up and down the coast. Lobster live on dead fish that drop to the sea bed so the only food available to them is what is in the pot. So as they migrate on shore to off shore and back, they are nearly all caught in the pots.

Bass Harbor Lighthouse from the sea

But the fishermen are only allowed to take lobsters of a certain size so any too small or too large have to be thrown back along with all breeding females. Generally out of every 10 caught 6 are thrown back and most that end up on your plate are males. You would think that this would impact on the number of breeding males available but the 4% who make the cut and manage to grow bigger than the maximum allowed catch size end up fighting it out on the sea bed to rule the lobster harems.  The lobster industry is growing largely due to the managed feeding and the huge number of pots laid daily. The lobster men can lift 800 pots in a day in all weathers – not a job for the faint hearted. 

Bass Harbor Lighthouse

Lobster quay and typical boat

  

We went on a cruise around the islands which was brilliant and although we didn't catch any whales we saw bald eagles, cormorants, harbour and Grey seals.  


Next we go inland to Gorham and the White Mountains for more scrambling fun!

Grey seal

Cormorants

Bald Eagle looking for lunch