[00:00:00.0]

 

SL: Actually the marina over there where you parked your van this (GK: oh yea) this, that’s what that complex looked like and of course they, they built the old sailing vessels right here on the shore as well as over in that area and this whole complex right here was where you could see the wooded area where they could bring them in and tie them up, they loaded the ships with the laz brought in different loads of freight from (cough) different areas and uh unloaded and reloaded again and went to where they was going and my grandfather come from Bert [..Look] senior that would be my grandfather and he had a brother named Oscar and they come from Locks point in Jonesboro and he come to work for the Mansfield I guess it was. He was they have the big barn other there that still here today that you see over on side of the church and he come there to work as a stable boy or whatever they call them they had they must of had at least 25 or 35 head of cattle.

 

[0:01:07.1]

 

GK: Wow

 

[0:01:08.1]

 

SL: and they put them out different pastures through Jones port area and uh he worked for them and at 18 years old he sailed out of the harbor as a captain on one of these schooners and he used to go Newfoundland, the West Indies and what not (cough) and he, that boat actually was built I believe down on the shore right here in front of us [compass…] the area was they used to build these vessels.

 

[0:01:39.0]

 

GK: When was that? What I mean early 1900s?

 

[0:01:41.0]

 

SL: SL: Well, no that was late 1800s, (GK: Okay) I’m going to take a stab and say 1880-1890, in or around that area, close there too and of course when they (cough) retired then they founded this company and that was in 1910 when him and his brother, his brother also was a captain, they used to sail a lot together as as captains and first mate but then his brother went down to Bath and was captain of a vessel down there for a while and uh His name was uh which I ain’t going to get wrong I’m sure his name was Bert and my grandfather’s name was Oscar (GK: Okay) so and uh course we would name my side the family was named for his brother Bert well then my father come along and they named him Bert [..Look] the second and course they named me Bert [..Look] the third. Well [..] got a lot of Berts here and they I had a son, I was 18 years old and we had a son named Bert so there was three of us running around at that time I guess took on the name, the nickname Sid. (GK: ha-ha can’t have too many Bert’s for one-) No that’s right from down the coast I’m known as Sid mostly and uh they founded this business you know used they used to buy and split and buy dry them, sell them a lot of fish and a lot of people then in the area here lived on the shrouded islands around this community, which we’ve got a lot of pictures of. Some of the homes there was put on vessels were floated and brought back to the mainland and built onto or whatever as they moved off the island we used to have marine hardware here in this building and we had a few groceries Knick knacks and this and that. General stuff that could be put on a vessel that serviced this area all the fishermen would come in and buy the merchandise and take it out. (cough) And then when I come along I think I was probably maybe 21 and I’m going to guess maybe around the late 60’s early 70’s then we got other marine hardware.

 

[0:04:00.8]

 

SL: We already got other general merchandise business didn’t have where’s and pots and pans and different stuff but we did have a lot of marine hardware and we’d got out of that out of that devoted this then into moving more into lobsters and stuff fish business I guess you might say it was on its way out. Lot of the fishmen used to hand line in the area and the fish got scarcer and scarcer and then in the inshore fishing went downhill and today is obsolete, but when I was a young fellow you know there would be we called em’ flakes there’d be a lot of dried fish out here in the door you had screens with stands on it and they would sundry these fish and cure them and uh flip them over and that would, a lot of these people in our area would eat, in Canada would eat this dried fish.

 

GK: And that’s like cod and -?

 

[0:05:02.7]

 

SL: Cod and haddock, pollock right a lot of pollock, cusp, and fish of this nature and also they was a season for halibut they had halibut. So, basic-basically they made a fairly good living at doing this and then the lobster industry kind of sprung out from that as that business that nature of the business died off its funny how (ha) I guess I might say every industry has its hay day. You know were in great performance then the bottom drops out of it. I guess were well blessed that that the lobster industry that there’s been enough smart people in this industry that have foreseen that you got to put back in the industry what you take out of it if you want to exist tomorrow. And uh you know by, we call the v notch program in Maine saving some of these lobsters through the years it’s been a blessing to the industry although I think now is the time that it should be revamped, because I mean I disagree myself with you know I’m got to point this out I’ve watched this in the industry that um the v – notch program done its duty in in in very well preserved the industry but that’s smarting up a little bit as time rolls on as man gets a little wiser we got to change it a little and my thought was you know this industry it’s the only industry that I could ever think of that we use the old people for breeding purposes to me that you know a little scary but uh maybe it’s the right way to go seems work the lobster business but..

 

GK: You mean the older lobsters?

 

[0:07:09.8]

 

SL: Right, the older lobsters we v-notch you know the oversize lobsters in Maine alone you can’t take the lobsters they’re there left for breeding now this probably is well a 5 pound lobster theoretically 4.5 pound lobster its over the 5 inch gauge we say and were not allowed we put that back. Well that’s fine but why would you want to put the males back you know, theres plenty other young bucks out there running around that uh (GK: yea) and the v-notch (cough) uh program and the smaller ones God it works great nothing wrong with that I’m just using the over size as an example you know around us every state every provence you know they don’t do this well theoretically I believe the only one who does the oversize program (GK: yea) now that would be fine to do with the females don’t get me wrong, but why not let the fishermen you know sell the males. I mean we’re very close Down east to the gray zone and now there’s a lot of Canadian fishermen fishing this gray zone which theoretically in my mind I don’t know who gives the camp away, but that gray zone is not set up right I mean I see maps years and years ago of the the late 1800s that show coming out of the Saint Croix river in Calais the line from Machias seal island was to the left hand side of Machias seal island and the right hand side of Machias seal island was US waters. Now that lyric has changed when they set this program up but yet the GPSs and this and that shows from those charts that Machias seal island is in US waters but according to the way this fishing program is set up its not.

 

[0:09:05.3]

 

GK: How is it set up? like where does grey zone go?

 

SL: Well, it comes out of St. Croix right down the center of St. Croix you know I believe I mean that’s how I you know the line of where the US and Canada is it follows what what US has that’s what were fishing. Although in my opinion there was an error made somewhere along the way that when they set this program up it doesn’t agree with the map that I’ve seen back in the late 1800’s you know apparently these uh GSP you know all this fishing uh oh uh can’t think of the word I want to say, electronics that they use the charts and stuff (GK: oh yea), shows that island is pretty well being in American waters but yet were coming in you know my point of view you know they’re cutting in on American you know taking more of our fishing grounds, that shouldn’t be.

 

[0:10:05.6]

 

GK: And they can take the oversize lobsters?

 

SL: They can take the oversize. Here we are the boys that I’ll just use as an example from Jones port to Calais they’re fishing cross the lines looking at one another were throwing the big ones back and their catching them in their traps waving to us and saying thank you fellows keep the good work up (laugh).

 

GK: I imagine it would be frustrating and um.

 

[0:10:32.7]

 

SL: Well it is to the fisherman it is I can see that it would be I mean they’ve lost a lot of grounds and and one of the problem is that that I I guess its like road rage out on the highway where you got busy biways this and that people tooting horns flipping the bird this and that road rage if you’re out there fishing in a smaller way you know this is what you’re going to run into when the more Canadians that we get. Nothing against the Canadians, beautiful people, some of my best friends but they when they lay their lobster lines their trawl lines they lay them one way and and own US people lay the opposite way. now that should be addressed because they are out there tangled up with one another, which shouldn’t be. So that in my opinion there’s two things two issues that should be addressed.

 

[0:11:39.5]

 

GK: It is interesting that the like this far Downeast I’ve been that- I’m just interested that there’s not more of a Canadian-US collaboration of the lobstering front.

 

SL: Well, I think in this way we’ve worked hand-in-hand. I mean the Maine people, Canadian people believe or not (ha) a lot of these (inaudible) US people along this border way, borderline we might say are Canadian orientated. Our ancestors if you go back I don’t believe there’s a family Downeast area that isn’t interbred or whatever or or or sprung from Canadian families. If they check our roots, they’ll find that. I know my side of the family is the Wooded family and the Wooded family believe or not well they come over here and settle they come from Grand Manan that’s Wooded Cove over there in that area so you see we entwine and I know several other families that I know here in the area done the same thing and years ago the churches so they tell me used to uh have different times and in in Grand Manan of some of these islands they send boats of people over to church back and forth. In the past times, so, I suppose that’s where we-.

 

[0:13:02.1]

 

GK: Yea, so there’s a lot of heritage there but the lobs- within the lobster industry, there’s not like a – they don’t have like meetings to address this stuff.  Or do they?

 

SL: No not really. (GK: yea [] yea) I tried years ago we owned another company in Grand Manan and I tried. When uh (cough) very few of the fishermen fishing Machias seal island that’s kind of the center point for Grand Manan, between Grand Manan we’ll say in the US and I it was only three of four who were fishing that area and I pitched something out to a couple of them and I said you know these Canadians now are moving over in your area more and more that crowding in on this gray zone I think it would be to your best advantage if you come over to Grand Manan and sat down with them and and see if you the industry yourselves could agree on a line that you all lay your traps on and I went to the Will Close, I forget what his name is. He was head of the (cough) of where fisherman’s association I believe in Grand Manan. Told him my idea he said ‘beautiful idea’ you let me know you want that to happen and I’ll get all my people together but it just faded away, never was done it’s a damn shame because I know well enough I know a lot of the fisherman in that area because we done business in that area for 20 years and I got to know some of them I know guaranteed that the biggest bout of them would try to work on a program.

 

[0:14:39.7]

 

GK: Yea (SL: you know so) yea, you’d think they would want to.

 

SL: Right

 

GK: So, so and this- what’s the operation’s you have here? You’ve got the lobster [..]

 

SL: Yea we started with the lobster and then the last 20 years we might say we do the seaweed working with the Acadia sea plants and we harvest the weed in the area for them truck it load it and take care of the problems or whatever might occur up and down the coast and then we also do herring we bring in fish boast with herring in them so there’s three major functions that this company has. We- ah our company was established in 1910 so we got some old roots were really the oldest lobster lobster producing family oriented company I’m going to say in the United states today you know we are pushing now we the fifth generation heading for the sixth we got some young fellows coming up there and uh so hopefully I just hope they carry the ship on and roll down the highway you might say but uh you know I’ve seen a lot come and go in my day and you know we were kind of pioneers of the industry we’ve tried picking crab and different things and we’ve dipped in oars in about every fishing thing there is up and down the coast to see if a function might work for us so, but we are still out there looking today so..

 

[0:16:16.2]

 

GK: Yea so what are some of the things you see in the future needing to- do you see anything coming up that you’ll need to shift and adjust?

 

SL: Oh, agriculture is going to take over up and down the coast, you know. Hopefully we can set our set our sails and kind of adapt into that I mean I give Maine now I can remember (cough)  just going back here probably 40 years in my time that no one in this area really wanted to eat mussels you know it was just clams, fish, and lobsters. Now today we’ve got mussels in the area going big time and they uh have different sites where they raise them and the about the same time we branched out-not us- but I’m talking about the Mainers and starting raising oysters in southern Maine and today that’s seems to be looking to be a new industry opening up just like in my time the seaweed industry has opened up. We used harvest our – some of my fishermen- because we used to over the years I used to buy seaweed when I was a young fellow and we would ship it to New York in different companies that were shipping lobsters they’d put it in their lobster box. My father ,years ago before the trucking industry was opened up, used to pack lobsters and take them up to the rail side in Colombia falls and they always put seaweed in the bottom of the barrels and on top when they shipped the lobsters into New York city and Philadelphia area by train so, you know this seaweed thing is is been here for, God, 60 years that I know about you know harvesting and selling seaweed in a small way, where you know people are shipping live product offerings to the people that ship marine worms they use a certain type of seaweed a little different product then what we use Downeast for shipping brought their worms in that stuff and they have for 60 or 70 years so.

 

[0:18:26.8]

 

GK: Yea now in southern Maine they’re growing those long- they’re growing the the winter (SL: stalk) kelp, sugar kelp.

 

SL: that is right.

 

GK: Huge!

 

SL: Right so.

 

GK: Its amazing.

 

SL: So, there you go. Agriculture again coming on in different ways were going to be finding out that that uh we don’t have the sites out in the harbors put them on land you know and I’m sure that uh it’s just like the lobster industry you know I I can remember that we – when I was young and in this business that it took a lobster 12 months to shed their shell. Now today, you know in my opinion, while we’ve got much more uh were getting much more- many more lobsters out of the areas here is that it reminds as a kid with fish boat turn that tank up now our water temperatures, just in my time, and I know I know in my area they have increased at least ten degrees.

 

[0:19:26.2]

 

GK: 10 degrees.

 

SL: I guarantee eight to ten degrees they have the water temperature come up well this is a breeding area apparently for lobsters, you know, up and down the coast of Maine and uh these lobsters now I – I’ve put lobsters in my pound and I’ve done the test here three four years ago and I found out that these lobsters now are shedding out 5 month period. Four to five months, so that tells me you know that there’s there’s there’s two shedding’s in a year now when we used to have one. That makes quite a difference. And what I am worried about will that temperature keep coming up and eventually these lobsters now are heading back to Canadian waters? In my opinion I think this is what’s happening.

 

GK: Yes, because probably in your lifetime you used be that Casco bay was this big lobster capital.

 

[0:20:27.5]

 

SL: And it was exactly. Rockland area, Casco bay headed west they caught a lot more lobsters then we did Downeast. Down in this area we (laugh) we always laugh about it because this is the starving area compared to them, you know they catch many more than we did. I had a gentleman in in uh up above Rockland area and uh [Bert Wertsome?] his name was and I used to buy his lobsters. Big fisherman and very very nice man and the [Wertsome?] family they ‘ve been in it for years and years and the fishing and buying industry and uh I know I’d come back and I’d say ‘Jeez, Bert I can’t believe the frikin’ lobsters you-you caught today on your boat.” He’d probably come in with 20 to 40 crates you know on his boat which would come up to anywhere from three to four thousand pounds and uh I said ‘Jeez our boys Downeast if we get seven or eight hundred pounds on a big set over, son of a boy we’ve done something. ‘Oh you guys don’t know how to catch lobsters’ course that way he always put it across and I remember (cough) I called him one Christmas and (laugh) I said I said ‘Now Bert, I want you to level with me.’ I said, ‘What was your biggest haul?’ Usually a fisherman don’t talk he said ‘I’m going to tell you my biggest day out there was 48 hundred pounds.’ Now I mean that’s a lot of frikin’ lobsters you can imagine that and uh but he was terrific fishermen no question about it he knew the ins and out and that’s all he ever done.

 

GK: But you probably have people coming in now with that much..

 

[0:22:08.8]

 

SL: We do. Yes, I mean I’ve seen that that now as the water temperature has warmed up these lobsters are migrating Downeast we might say now will they stop them Downeast I mean (laugh) I’d like to see that they’re going over. In my theory, as that water temperature comes up you know the lyrics are going to change. I never forget it was in the mid-70’s I happened to be on a plane one day flying from Los Angeles. I was going to Washington to see a company over that way and uh and uh I happened to set down side, jeez I called him a four-star general I never see an army guy decorated so much decoration on in my life and we and Mount St. Helen has just erupted at the time and it was only like probably five days had passed and I remember the captain came on the plane and he said ‘Look at the right hand side. I’m going to dip the wings. we’re going over Mount St. Helen. Notice the white powder in the area’ and uh we did. Everyone see on the plane got a glimpse at it and we flew along. Down by the captain or whatever he was alongside of my, the army guy he said, ‘ Boy that’s going to be quite a bearing on the on on America.’ I said myself I said. ‘In what way?’ and he said ‘Well, I’ll tell you’ he said, ‘We lost so many inches off that mountain.’ he said. ‘Actually, that’s where I’m headed. I’m going in I’m a scientist and he said that’s what I’ve done for the service department since I’ve been in it most of my time. Korea. I’m headed over there to study this he said this is going to have quite a bearing just visualize that how that sun is going to shine more so you know in the California in this area because we have lost so many inches of that big mountain. this is going to warm the area up.’ this is every before global warming ever was the media picked this global warming before it ever come out. I said to myself ‘Jeez this guy. what do you know. crazy. you know what he’s talking about.’ He said, ‘ Young fellow you are going to see in your time, if you live on, you will notice the changes.’ and I never forget that because I thought this guy is was off-off the wall. I mean uh and I uh today I set back and say, ‘Jeez I guess this man was quit educated and knew what he was talking about’. you know a lot of the stuff he told me that day I have seen unfold just from my area (GK: yea). So, I guess he pretty knew well what he was talking about.

 

[0:24:51.6]

 

GK: Yea. Are you-do you see like water level changes too? But, do you see any of that?

 

SL: Yea, well, I think we all have. look at what’s happening the water levels coming up I mean that’s quite simple to say look at all these stones now were pushing the sea level along with the water run off higher than ever was before. so there again the lyrics are changing (GK: yea). Shown by there’s no field industry that i see that the lyrics haven’t changed as they’re changing you know right near right in front of your eyes. I mean you see stuff. You sit down and visualize the changes in the area in every industry.

 

GK: Do you think you’ll have to do some uh you know change to your work and dock situation? Is it going to come to that or?

 

[0:25:44.2]

 

SL: Well our dock is set up pretty high there is some docks in the are that that the water has come up so high that it is either knock the building down or they have had to increase them up and down the coast we might say and yes i see that that if, you know they get to be so i mean  it might take another 50 or 100  hundred years who knows maybe it will stop there. Let’s hope it does but uh you know it’s like the polar bear industry from what pictures show us the areas that the ice is melting you know you don’t see the ice function. and I know I used to work a lot in Newfoundland and my father used to buy lobsters down there you know, God, we’d sail through ice going back and forth the gulf there from Sydney to Newfoundland, crushed ice and this and that  you don’t see that as much today that ice in that area now I’m not saying all of it because you do see some but a lot of it is disappeared from what it was in previous years. (GK: yea) you know so that tells me that everywhere global warming is there so and in this respect that’s why I think we’re going to be raising more product you know making the product or whatever from scratch to finish you might say and things are changing and will change in our area.

 

[0:27:17.9]

 

GK: Do you worry? Does it worry you to see people invest so much money in some of these big boats and …?

 

SL: Well, it does boy some of these. (laugh) I can remember back in my time that uh jeez five thousand dollars was a lot of money to pay for a boat now of course these fishermen here today. I mean these offshore fishermen we might say. 40,000. That’s no investment to them that’s been anywhere from 4 to 8 hundred thousand but they got to. Lobsters are migrating if you don’t chase those lobsters in that area. they’re out as we say probably from my area or Milbridge area or off there 18 to 30 miles offshore you might say, and they get a bigger boat to work that industry more horsepower and this and that too. you know that you know trying to make a living and this is what it is all about the lobsters area is pushed off you know another areas never before that that in my time I’ve had different fisherman test some areas off there and and you know they never ever picked a lobster up over in that area. So that tells me again that the lyrics are changing so.

 

[0:28:42.4]

 

GK: It is amazing how much you can know about the environment and what’s going on just from working in the – these industries. You know, not even as a necessarily a scientist. It’s just you have that knowledge.

 

SL: Well, I think its something that born to you just like a fisherman. Now, I’d starve to death if I was a fisherman, but (laugh) that’s smart enough I’d say. And with all the electronics and the- they’re pretty smart people. I mean they know where to put those traps and just when that lobster is going to be there a couple months from today. Now you, I mean its not for me I know I couldn’t figure it out so and some of them are pretty frikin’ smart. It just reminds me back years ago now I can remember my grandfather was a warden retired warden on the Wooded side of the family and I can remember way back they had what was known was starvation measure before my time where the gauge and I’m going to guess because I’m probably telling you wrong but was the measure was almost like three and a quarter because lobsters seemed to peter out and they wanted to build the industry back up again. and uh apparently it worked and uh I can remember course my dad was in business and they and I and he always told me he said the state at that time started bringing in, they would buy spawn lobsters and ‘v’ the tail and put them back they raised so much money all the lobsters all the lobster licenses on the fishermen that money was supposed to be put back in the industry for the lobster fishermen themselves to better the industry in brood stock or whatever well it come along and uh we uh (music starts playing) (laugh) but uh.

 

[0:30:37.6]

 

GK: Wait, what is that frikin’ noise? (song playing in the background)

 

GK: Oh that’s my frikin’ phone going off (song playing loudly) and oh uh oh

 

(song/ringtone playing loudly)

 

SL: Brood stock well my dad used to sell a lot of that like we’d we would our lobsters out the lobster pound would see the [bury] and the state would buy them. they wouldn’t pay him for them, but you could re- get pretty well what you had in them for dollars and cents. So we in this area me and every other lobster dealer would sell them back to the state. Well (cough) we decided (laugh) as you know that course, we didn’t to have this brood stock (song/ringtone starts playing again) we didn’t want to have the brood stock in the area. It-

 

[0:31:26.2]

 

GK: What’s brood stock?

 

SL: Brood stock is seed lobsters. Buried lobsters that the state would buy and put back in the industry. We would get out money back on them but so then we all started putting male lobsters in the pound because they wouldn’t bury up. Well when the industry started doing that, then the state had this money well what are we going to we got to go out and buy other brood stock or seed to put back in the industry these buried lobsters so my father always said he said well lets go to Canada he said and and he said and well get some seed lobsters out of up in New Brunswick well bring some in from Newfoundland and sell them to the state. Well the state was right against this they didn’t want this pattern so it was kind of hush hush different dealers would do this. and uh my father was probably the king-pin of doing it sold it to the state and this and about five or six years i can remember as a young fellow that lobsters in my area was all darkish green they did not have spots in them now this seed of brood stock that we call it this lobster seed that we would bring in the area these lobsters ended up breeding in this area and they, course you know, when they all the Canadian lobsters up in up in up in up in New Brunswick and and up in Quebec, Gulf of St. Lawrence over Newfoundland they have speckles on their lobsters. Now western [Nove] down their area they was like our area they had dark lobsters. They didn’t have the specks on them. they brought this broth to brood seed in the area here, released it, let it go, some even went to the western. Now today all these lobsters have speckles on the shells, and I notice too that the tails on the lobsters broadened out. You never hear a scientist ever mention this but the tails on the lobsters like the lobster in that area they have a wider tail on them and uh especially the females. But it’s too bad this kind of slipped through the screens this never ever was ever addressed or brought out in the industry. It’s a damn shame. this in my opinion helped the area, you know, tremendously.

 

[0:34:00.7]

 

GK: Do you think um was it so hush-hush that people didn’t really know?

 

SL: Well, it was hush-hush in this way. the state didn’t want to bring in anything from a foreign country they wanted their own seed put in the areas. so I mean they was doing it in the lobster pounds they just didn’t know it people were bringing in these Canadian lobsters and putting them in the lobster pounds I mean they couldn’t they was in a different industry they probably couldn’t see by their nose that the was buying these Canadian lobsters buy the pounds and didn’t know it. they thought they was Maine lobsters well they 80% of them Downeast was Canadian lobsters.

 

GK: What year was this when they were trying to that?

 

SL: Back in the sixties

 

GK: Oh wow! That was long time ago.

 

SL: Long time ago. and i have noticed how this lobster has changed but you-it would surprise you how many fishermen you go up and down the coast and you ask ‘Have you seen any change in the lobsters themselves? Quality, style?’ None of them would, don’t even know. Damn shame.

 

[0:35:07.3]

 

GK: Because they don’t remember?

 

SL: Well I don’t know about that but they I mentioned to an old time fishermen at one time and uh I we had the same discussion and I and I and I mentioned about the V-notch one and I brought out its the only industry where you have the older generation that uh you know that you get your brood stock from and uh well as he told me ‘you don’t know much about lobsters’ you know I want to say I probably know a little bit about them I played with them all my life but that’s (background shuffling sounds) everyone’s got their own opinion. But I mean that’s my opinion on what’s happened up and down the coast anyways.

 

GK: Do you see – and so do you have a couple herring boats come in and then you…

 

[0:35:58.4]

 

SL: We do. We have some. Actually, these herring a lot we used to bring some in from Grand Manan that area down that way and Nova Scotia but you know being the supply the herring dropping off over the years and the cold is changing and now you can’t that fish, its scare that they use herring for lobstering too and lot of the freeze them in that area so we bring boats in as far as Massachusetts you know with you know the biggest fish the biggest load we’ve had come in here was almost nine hundred thousand pounds(900,000). that we pumped off one done-

 

[0:36:39.8]

 

GK: Are you putting them in those tanks?

 

SL: Yep. We run them off and we put them in trucks, and we have fish totes where we manufactured, salt the fish and hold them in there. But we sold the lot of it we i think that that eight hundred and eighty thousand pounds (880,000) day I think it amounted to about jeez I think we sold 25 or 30 trailer truck loads as well as manufactured put some up for ourselves that day. that was busy 30 hours.

 

GK: I’ll say.

 

SL: Yea, right.

 

GK: Because you buy it then you would have to salt it before it goes-

 

SL: Well, we didn’t salt all of it. the trucks that trucked it away done it fresh. but we get up so that we can pump two about two trucks to one. (GK: wow) you know and uh you move a lot of fish that way when the trucks hold anywhere from 40 to 50 thousand pounds.

 

GK: What time is it? Do you want to check?

 

SL: Yea, take a little break.

 

GK: Got a couple minutes. We’ll um convert this (microphone movement)

 

(mumbled/movement)

 

SL: must be five six trailer truck load and uh. (GK: that’s amazing.) you know that we’ve got so.

 

[0:37:41.8]

 

GK: and um yea I mean one of the thing I go to places in like spring or fall so you know I grew up in Stonington I know this is like the quieter time but I like I like that it’s a quieter time.

 

SL: Right, well, we have four seasons. (laughter) Right with all these fishermen get a little break. that’s right.

 

GK: But it’s been so windy….

 

SL: Oh jeez winter come on quick I call it one the wind you know its unbelievable how much frikin’ wind we’re getting that uh I mean it mean it blows every other day (laugh) so I mean anywhere from 30 to 40 miles an hour (GK: I know) that’s quite a lot of wind. So (GK: is that-) See how that industry has changed.

 

GK: That is different.

 

[0:38:30.3]

 

SL: They always told me. father always told me through the years that mother nature has a way of protecting her own. and right now there’s a lot of lobsters out there course and if these fishermen hammer on them every day, boy, you know, maybe that’s part of mother nature saying well we are going to give some back or whatever but uh but the lobster industry really has been a blessing industry well say for the state of Maine. that’s for sure. Put us on the map. no matter where you go you mention Maine and they say ah you’re from lobster country we are a breed all our own, I guess.

 

GK: And my, that’s been that way my entire life but I guess that and… I’m thirty.. well probably before that it wasn’t always …was it kind of always the case or did it change?

 

[0:39:28.1]

 

SL: Well it changed in this respect. you see back in oh the late 70s we, the industry, started flying lobsters all over the united states and then back in the 80s we the industry started flying them to France and different places, different countries. I know I used to sell France Europe and that area so and I’m just a small peon compared to some of them in the Rockland area. Supposedly Rockland is uh lobster capital of Downeast, supposedly.  (GK: its shifting). Jonesport.. Oh she’s already shifted. Jonesport. Stonington out does in weight by far. there’s no comparison now, but in that area for a long time they caught per boat a lot more lobsters than we did in our area Downeast but those lyrics- the table has turned. you know and uh we Downeast rule of thumb pick up more basically I believe.

 

[0:40:34.1]

 

GK: Have you had any personal experiences with some of the tariff stuff that is happening? Like selling to China, do you have any of that?

 

SL: Well, no I don’t I don’t sell overseas. I sell some of the people that sell over there.

 

GK: Ok (SL: you know) because those would be the [(cough)] kind of the big distributors. like that.

 

SL: That’s right, lot bigger than me. We used to do that in a small way. It didn’t work out. We are so far away from the airport that sometimes you’d get down there and the plane wouldn’t run and this and that and then the product had to come back and take be unboxed that uh when you are 300 miles from an airport it can come back to haunt you. (GK: yea) you know that was my story but you know a lot of these boys are close to the airport its a little but different for them but I’m sure that uh I mean trumps on the right path they are gunning for him but God looks how he’s helped different areas. put people back to work and and some industries that wasn’t functioning properly now they’ve started on the right track and God if they get on the band wagon with him instead of trying to you know the trouble is a lot of these guys for years they want to give a ship away there comes a day when you you you got to balance the book and watch the fire in the whole (laugh) we got to balance the book I would think. (Gk: yea) You can’t give away and give away and we all like people that give don’t’ get me wrong but it’s like LePage when you balance the book and come out with a plus never before [doing something] something in the last 20 years I might say or 40 years you know now this new party. I’m going to give them probably seven months and we’ll be back in the red again. Mark my words.

 

[0:42:38.9]

 

GK: and that’s something you value politically is just making sure you can have that-

 

SL: You got to balance the book if you are going to be a thriving company or whatever or county we might say. I would think you got to balance your books (GK: yea). You know sooner or later dead overcomes you. in my opinion (GK: yea) now that’s just my opinion I guess but

 

GK: well its interesting because even just stepping back to your own business and I was talking with uh Charlie Alley yesterday about his boat that you know he never bought a boat he couldn’t pay for upfront.

 

[0:43:19.1]

 

SL: He would. He’s a remarkable [..] He’s telling you the truth (laugh). I can remember when that gentleman started out in 18-foot boat and I he was probably one of my idols in the area and I used to stay at their house because he lived along side of me [..] and uh he had a little jar he had dollar dollar bills in it coins a fifty cent he save it up. forward however we might say however he done it he bought his first boat. We don’t do that anymore. No

 

GK: No, that’s a whole- that’s kind of what I was…

 

SL: Well then that was our upbringing back in those areas. that was drove into the head that you got to save i mean there was no one out there helping you you know just like if you wanted a handout from the town. the town wasn’t there now later years now you know we’ve got a lot of giveaway programs and some of them is good don’t get me wrong. you know. some people need help and deserve help but there’s a lot riding the dapple mare the long way. So..

 

[0:44:26.0]

 

GK: Riding the dappled mare the long way! I’ve never heard that expression (laughter).

 

SL: Well that’s an old New England saying (laughter)

 

GK: Well Sid, thank you I know checked on your watch and got to go. Well I’ll see you hopefully Tuesday. (SL: ok fine yup) and well walk around for a minute

 

SL: We’ll try our best (inaudible)

 

[0:44:46.8]