The Quiet Side

My brother-in-law and his wife have a summer home at Northeast Harbor, on the "quiet side" of the island - in other words, it isn't as crowded as Bar Harbor - so we couldn't pass up the chance to visit with them for a while. We rode on their boat to Bass Harbor for lunch.

Bass Island Lighthouse

Bass Island Lighthouse resembles Bear Island Lighthouse to a great degree, except it has a red roof. We watched a slender red light rotating in the tower, even though it was bright sunshine.

Bass Harbor

Bass Harbor is primarily a lobster facility. I know you have high tide twice a day, and low tide twice a day, which are related to the moon, but these tides were pretty extreme in my mind. On June 13th when we were there, here's what the tide chart said:

High    8:09 am    10.97ft; High    8:35 pm    11.95 ft; Low    2:01 am    0.05ft; Low    2:20 pm    0.13 ft.           I still don't understand how you can have a low tide of only 0.05 feet and have enough water for all the boats to still float. Maybe this only affects the edges of the water, and the channel is much deeper to begin with. Lobster Traps Lobster Buoys Barnacles on the Traps We were told that each lobster trap has two parts - the kitchen and the parlor. Smelly fish bait goes in the kitchen to tempt the lobster to enter, but after they eat the bait, there is nothing to keep them from walking back out again, and many do. However, lobsters eat each other too, so if a bigger lobster arrives, the smaller one in the kitchen moves over to the parlor, and can't get out again. A lobster may live 100 years, grow to 5 feet, and weigh as much as 45 pounds! Officially, the largest lobster ever caught weighed 44 pounds. A lobster’s age is approximately his weight multiplied by 4, plus 3 years. A lobster is approximately 7 years old before it is legal to harvest, and it will weigh about 1 pound. A lobster has a greater life expectancy than most humans. A 25 pound lobster could be over 100 years old! https://lobsteranywhere.com/lobster-101 for more info about lobsters. Lobster Anatomy You can tell if a lobster is a male or a female by looking at their first pair of swimmerets found on the under body of the lobster. The swimmerets on the male are larger and bony; they are smaller and softer in the female. Measuring Lobster traps may not be hauled at night and on Sundays during June through August in Maine waters (since 1967). In Maine it is illegal to keep lobsters under and over a certain size. Lobstermen use a special gauge to accurately measure the length of the lobster’s carapace (body)–from the eye socket to the beginning of the tail to ensure legal compliance. The legal minimum length is 3 1/4 inches. Lobsters under this length are call “shorts” or “snappers” and must be thrown back into the ocean. Minimum sizes are enforced to make sure that lobsters are mature enough to breed at least once before they are harvested. When a female egg-bearing lobster is found, it is required by Maine law that a v-shaped notch be placed in the right tail flipper before releasing the lobster, in order to protect her so that she may continue to reproduce. Lobster Dinner On our last evening at Hog Island, we got to eat whole lobster for the first time in our lives. Fortunately, we had Maine residents to teach us how to crack it open and extract the sweet juicy meat. Charlotte's Lobster Pound You can find lobster pounds everywhere on MDI. We never heard why they are called "pounds" though. Lobsta Roll My favorite way to eat lobster, though, is the lobsta roll. These had huge chunks of meat without having to spend the time to pull them out of the shell. YUMMM!