Kirby's Lobster Shack in the News
Working the sea is a family tradition for Bill Kirby
 |
| Bill Kirby, left, and his sternman Greg Ryan in the waters off Bayside |
Bill Kirby is a one-man fishing industry. He makes parts for lobster traps, tends 200 traps out of Belfast Harbor, and sells his crustacean harvest out of his own inland lobster shack.
The 27-year-old Waldo man is carring on the seafaring tradition of his father, a commercial fisherman most of his life, and his grandfather, a tugboat captain. It is his father who started the sawmill on Route 7 where the Kirbys make oak runners for wire traps, as well as spindles for buoys. This summer, Kirby has been getting out on the water three times a week - two weekday afternoons after work at the mill, as well as one day of the weekend.
Last Saturday, Kirby and his sternman, Greg Ryan, were out tending traps. Kirby trailers his 19-foot Seaway from his Waldo home each fishing day, putting in at the Belfast waterfront. When there's enough light, he's on the water by 5 a.m. for his weekend haulings. This mid-August morning, he and Ryan put in at 6 a.m., carrying seven plastic pails of herring bait picked up at Stinson Canning.
 |
| Kirby bands the claws |
Traps are three to four feet long. The oak runners on the bottom, made by the Kirbys themselves, rest on the rocky sea bed, preventing abrasion of the vinyl-coated wire. The lobster, attracted by the mesh bag of bait insde, crawls through a circular opening of rope netting into the trap's "kitchen." Another rope netting entryway leads back into the "parlor".
The traps entice more than lobster. On this day, numberous crabs, or "pigeontoes", are in the traps, as well as a couple of dogfish and a starfish. They are all tossed back into the sea, along with undersized lobsters, and female egg-bearing lobsters. On the lobsters he can keep, Kirby uses a hand tool to slip thick rubber bands around the claws, then places the catch in Coleman ice chests.
 |
| Kirby hooks his buoy, attached by line to the lobster trap |
Kirby has been running his own lobster boat for six years. He's been selling retail out of the lobster shack for two. "I started taking small orders for friends and family. People were calling all the time." Kirby himself is amazed at the popularity of lobsters, even during fall and winter holidays. I" figured everybody ate turkey at Thanksgiving. You wouldn't believe the number of people having lobster."
Kirby enjoys not only the fishing part, but also the retail end of the operation. On a weekday evening last week, both he and Lori-Ann were there to wait on customers. The affable Kirby, who has relatives in Rhode Island, spotted that state's plates on a customer's vehicle and swapped talk of towns and businesses.
 |
| Kirby tends close to 200 traps, spread from Belfast harbor to Sears Island to Islesboro to Bayside |
He's not worried about lobster depletion. "As long as people throw back the females with eggs like they're supposed to, there should be no problem, really." Lobstering can be tiring work, often done in less than ideal weather conditions. Kirby has finished more than one day in the late fall with ice on his beard. In the summer, heat is a factor. "It can take a lot out of you when you're out in the sun all day long. It's so open out there. It's not like you have a tree to sit under."
But he wouldn't trade it for anything. "I love being on the water. Fishing has always been in my family. It's so peaceful and quiet out there. It's your own little environment."
Kirby's contentment shows. As the third generation of a seafaring family, he's found his own place on the water.
 |
| Kirby tosses unwanted crabs back to sea, while Ryan readies a new bait bag of herring for the trap |
 |
| The 27-year-old Kirby carries on the seafaring tradition of his father and grandfather |