Birth, Death, and Lobsters

33 years ago (yesterday), my daughter Sara was born.  I was 8 years younger than she is now.  In the scramble of yesterday I forgot her birthday.  Until a bunch of workers were standing around the waterfront talking about the guy who died yesterday. 

“How old was he?”

“I dunno, he was born in 1976.  You figure it out.”

1976 was when Sara was born.  Yesterday.  

The deadman's birth year reminded me to call my girl.  I didn’t yesterday, but will today.

So the intrepid divers took out last night into the teeth of the brewing gale.  We lost one of the extras so we all 5 went in one of the Wrigley boats, extra wide, plenty of room.  Heading up to the Invertebrate Preserve (see Map).  By the time we got there, the swell was probably 3-4 feet and the visibility was close to zero.  Ok, back we go.  On the way home we rode some of those waves and hooted and hollered.  Got chased by a guy paranoid about his dozen hoop nets intended to catch lobsters.  Hoop nets are different than traps.  Hoop nets are collapsed on the bottom with a can of cat food in the middle.  The lobsters come for the cat food and munch on it for an hour till the operator pulls up quick and brings the lobster with the net.  A trap is only used by the commercial guys on the south side of the island.  They are illegal on this side.  Anyway, some guy chased us real close.  He was dressed like a pirate, and said Arrr, as he turned away.

Next stop, Big Fisherman’s cove.  Mike and I “tended” the skiff, while the other 3 dove.  It was getting pretty lumpy.  They got 9 presentations.  4 attacks!  This story is starting to get pretty consistent.  Even in bad weather the preserve lobsters attack.

Here’s the cool thing though.  We took a couple of the attackers into the lab.  Our intention is to see how long before they start attacking sea hares in the lab.  Usually it takes the lobsters a week or so to get used to the lab, and another 5-7 weeks to get hungry enough to eat sea hares.

But just for kicks we laid a sea hare on top of the biggest guy.  He attacked it big time!

Not 8 weeks, not 2 weeks, not one week, not one day.  20 min after being released into the tank he was ready to eat sea hare.  

Meanwhile, chop’s getting bigger.  I go out to Siwash to spend the night as the gale builds. 

More tomorrow.