The Lobster Gangs of Maine
by James Acheson
1988
I must have bought The Lobster Gangs of Maine at a used bookstore when I was in grad school, because it surely spent a couple decades in a professor's office before that, something they were assigned in one of their own graduate classes, or an early career purchase when they wanted to fill out their shelves. I just thought it was neat. Recently I re-found it on my own shelves and decided to give it a read.
Published in 1988, The Lobster Gangs of Maine is a final summation of 15 years of research conducted by James Acheson and various grad students, research assistants, and collaborators. Acheson notes in the intro that his original manuscript was over 700 pages, but he managed to edit it down to a tight 150, plus references and about 20 pages of photographs from the field. As a result, while this is still an academic book, it's remarkably accessible to general readers. Acheson focuses on sharing what he learned, without drawing much on social theory. The research for Lobster Gangs was mostly ethnographic observation, mostly conducted on the boats and docks where lobster fisherman do their work.
Acheson walks us through the geography of the Maine coast and history of lobster fishing there, the culture of the towns and hamlets where fisherman live and the operation of the 'harbor gangs' that control access to fishing opportunities. He explains how lobster fishing actually works and the status differences that open up between the more and less skilled fishers in the same gang, the economics of fishermen selling their catches to dealers and dealers selling them on to wholesalers and retail customers, and some of the environmental and economic problems affecting the industry during the time of the study. I was most interested in the early chapters, especially chapter 2, about the social organization of rural life in coastal towns and within the gangs themselves.
Lobsters eat plankton that thrive near the surface of the ocean where sunlight is abundant, but they live on the ocean floor where the water is rich in nutrients and there are plenty of rocks to hide among. So the biggest concentrations of lobsters are in shallow waters, both right near the coast and further out where the geology of the sea floor brings it closer to the surface. Lobsters migrate in a large circle over the course of the year. They are most active and easiest to catch in the warmest months. They molt their shells once a year and then regrown new, larger ones, and spend this vulnerable time in hiding. Lobsters that are too small get thrown back to grow another year, as do female lobsters with visible egg sacs.
Lobstermen fish by lowering traps with bait to the sea floor. Set in the right spot at the correct angle, a trap might catch a lobster a day, although usually it takes longer. The skill of lobster fishing comes in knowing the sea floor, the migration routes, the right places at the right times. This information is shared within harbor gangs and kept secret from others; even within gangs, men have secrets, but they also have friends and relatives in the gang who they owe advice and help to. Traps are tied to long ropes that are also tied to buoys which let the fishermen find them and pull them up. If the rope breaks (or is deliberately cut), the trap is lost and can't be recovered.
The social life of coastal Maine is divided between the old, established families who are 'insiders' and a mix of vacationers and newer arrivals who are all considered 'outsiders'. To be honest, I think this is more of less true in rural anywhere, and maybe anywhere anywhere, although as a perpetual outsider myself, it's a little hard for me to judge. The established families are all very large, though most people only recall back to their grandparents' generation with any certainty, plus a handful of locally famous ancestors. They value independence and self-sufficiency, small-business ownership, conservative politics, loyalty to the community, and belonging to multiple civic and religious groups. Education, (especially college, but also kindergarten, for some reason) and really anything that causes people to move away, is viewed with suspicion.
Summer home owners are not part of the community. Newcomers aren't initially, but can integrate by sending their kids to the local schools, joining the local clubs, and showing their commitment to adopting the old ways instead of changing them. Acheson notes that only members of established families can win local political office - first of all, their relatives form a sizeable voting bloc, and also, no insider would vote for someone they don't know, either personally, or by their family's reputation. Outsiders can only join lobstering gangs if they are on the path to assimilation.
When Acheson calls the groups of men who all fish out of the same harbor 'gangs', he's not just speaking metaphorically. Each harbor has a single gang that controls that turf, and you either join the gang or you don't get to fish (or at least, not for long). Each gang also controls a territory of coastal waters where only they can fish, although there are occasional skirmishes along the borders between neighboring territories.
Gangs mostly defend their territory with the destruction of property rather than interpersonal violence, and mostly by cutting the ropes holding lobster traps (which offers a degree of plausible deniability), although in rare cases it case escalate to breaking traps that are sitting on the docks or setting someone's boat on fire. Attacks tend to be anonymous, retaliation is easy, and the costs add up, so gangs try to avoid open conflict. But an interloper trying to fish the gang's turf will find it hard to catch much when his traps keep getting cut and other mishaps start to befall his equipment.
In theory, lobstermen can sell their to whoever they want to try to get the highest price, but in practice, each fisher has a long-term relationship with a specific dealer, and dealers in the same area all pay nearly the same price. By giving up in the chance to 'sell around' to different buyers, the lobstermen gain a guaranteed customer, even when there's a glut of lobsters. (In turn, the dealers get a loyal supplier who'll sell what they have, even when there's a drought.) There are a few large wholesalers operating out of Boston, but most of the lobster trade is made up of small buyers and sellers.
Acheson thinks the nature lobster fishing makes it resistant to rationalization and vertical integration. He expects the industry structure to remain much the same, even despite problems like inflation and declining lobster stocks in the 1980s. Although there remains potential for a 'tragedy of the commons' problem with overfishing, the harbor gangs help limit the amount of fishing, and individual fishermen respect the laws against keeping too-young or egg-laying lobsters.
Published in 1988, The Lobster Gangs of Maine is a final summation of 15 years of research conducted by James Acheson and various grad students, research assistants, and collaborators. Acheson notes in the intro that his original manuscript was over 700 pages, but he managed to edit it down to a tight 150, plus references and about 20 pages of photographs from the field. As a result, while this is still an academic book, it's remarkably accessible to general readers. Acheson focuses on sharing what he learned, without drawing much on social theory. The research for Lobster Gangs was mostly ethnographic observation, mostly conducted on the boats and docks where lobster fisherman do their work.
Acheson walks us through the geography of the Maine coast and history of lobster fishing there, the culture of the towns and hamlets where fisherman live and the operation of the 'harbor gangs' that control access to fishing opportunities. He explains how lobster fishing actually works and the status differences that open up between the more and less skilled fishers in the same gang, the economics of fishermen selling their catches to dealers and dealers selling them on to wholesalers and retail customers, and some of the environmental and economic problems affecting the industry during the time of the study. I was most interested in the early chapters, especially chapter 2, about the social organization of rural life in coastal towns and within the gangs themselves.
Lobsters eat plankton that thrive near the surface of the ocean where sunlight is abundant, but they live on the ocean floor where the water is rich in nutrients and there are plenty of rocks to hide among. So the biggest concentrations of lobsters are in shallow waters, both right near the coast and further out where the geology of the sea floor brings it closer to the surface. Lobsters migrate in a large circle over the course of the year. They are most active and easiest to catch in the warmest months. They molt their shells once a year and then regrown new, larger ones, and spend this vulnerable time in hiding. Lobsters that are too small get thrown back to grow another year, as do female lobsters with visible egg sacs.
Lobstermen fish by lowering traps with bait to the sea floor. Set in the right spot at the correct angle, a trap might catch a lobster a day, although usually it takes longer. The skill of lobster fishing comes in knowing the sea floor, the migration routes, the right places at the right times. This information is shared within harbor gangs and kept secret from others; even within gangs, men have secrets, but they also have friends and relatives in the gang who they owe advice and help to. Traps are tied to long ropes that are also tied to buoys which let the fishermen find them and pull them up. If the rope breaks (or is deliberately cut), the trap is lost and can't be recovered.
The social life of coastal Maine is divided between the old, established families who are 'insiders' and a mix of vacationers and newer arrivals who are all considered 'outsiders'. To be honest, I think this is more of less true in rural anywhere, and maybe anywhere anywhere, although as a perpetual outsider myself, it's a little hard for me to judge. The established families are all very large, though most people only recall back to their grandparents' generation with any certainty, plus a handful of locally famous ancestors. They value independence and self-sufficiency, small-business ownership, conservative politics, loyalty to the community, and belonging to multiple civic and religious groups. Education, (especially college, but also kindergarten, for some reason) and really anything that causes people to move away, is viewed with suspicion.
Summer home owners are not part of the community. Newcomers aren't initially, but can integrate by sending their kids to the local schools, joining the local clubs, and showing their commitment to adopting the old ways instead of changing them. Acheson notes that only members of established families can win local political office - first of all, their relatives form a sizeable voting bloc, and also, no insider would vote for someone they don't know, either personally, or by their family's reputation. Outsiders can only join lobstering gangs if they are on the path to assimilation.
When Acheson calls the groups of men who all fish out of the same harbor 'gangs', he's not just speaking metaphorically. Each harbor has a single gang that controls that turf, and you either join the gang or you don't get to fish (or at least, not for long). Each gang also controls a territory of coastal waters where only they can fish, although there are occasional skirmishes along the borders between neighboring territories.
Gangs mostly defend their territory with the destruction of property rather than interpersonal violence, and mostly by cutting the ropes holding lobster traps (which offers a degree of plausible deniability), although in rare cases it case escalate to breaking traps that are sitting on the docks or setting someone's boat on fire. Attacks tend to be anonymous, retaliation is easy, and the costs add up, so gangs try to avoid open conflict. But an interloper trying to fish the gang's turf will find it hard to catch much when his traps keep getting cut and other mishaps start to befall his equipment.
In theory, lobstermen can sell their to whoever they want to try to get the highest price, but in practice, each fisher has a long-term relationship with a specific dealer, and dealers in the same area all pay nearly the same price. By giving up in the chance to 'sell around' to different buyers, the lobstermen gain a guaranteed customer, even when there's a glut of lobsters. (In turn, the dealers get a loyal supplier who'll sell what they have, even when there's a drought.) There are a few large wholesalers operating out of Boston, but most of the lobster trade is made up of small buyers and sellers.
Acheson thinks the nature lobster fishing makes it resistant to rationalization and vertical integration. He expects the industry structure to remain much the same, even despite problems like inflation and declining lobster stocks in the 1980s. Although there remains potential for a 'tragedy of the commons' problem with overfishing, the harbor gangs help limit the amount of fishing, and individual fishermen respect the laws against keeping too-young or egg-laying lobsters.
