I had the pleasure of working with Avery Scott of Bunkers Harbor, Maine last week. His story is different than the other lobstermen I have showcased in my photo series.
Read on and learn about Avery:
“I started fishing in here with my grandfather in 1981 and I would have been 11 at the time. First year I fished on my own 1990. I was pretty close to 100 traps at one point in time. It was that little boat, about 13 1/2 feet long and 6 feet wide and I bought a used 25 horse Suzuki outboard off my Uncle. I had a Suzuki outboard on the back of that skiff for a motor.
And I pulled them traps up, hand over hand, pulled them up by hand.
I had a bunch of wooden ones, I had a few wire ones. I had whatever I could keep intact that would hold the lobster and catch one. Had a bunch of junk but it worked.
In the spring of ‘91, I bought a used wooden boat from Herman Anderson in Corea. He was selling out, retired. I bought his boat and his traps for $10,000. A 32 foot wooden Jonesport Beals boat built in 1967. 500 wooden traps in that boat, had a little gas engine in it.
It could barely get out of its way, but I had it for three years and I sold it. Sold it for exactly what I paid for it, although I put quite a bit of money in it.
Sold it and built myself a brand spanking new H&H fiberglass boat. Had it built the way I wanted it in ’94. It was $520 a month and I was scared shitless the whole time thinking I wasn't going to be able to make the payments on it but I paid the boat off early in 8 years.
So I owned it for a number of years free and clear it was mine. And right up until I sold it And she was top shelf A1,Never had any trouble with that boat same engine was in it when I got rid of her as it was the day I built up.”
I decided that fishing wasn't something that I loved anymore. I lost my love for it.
It became a job.
I got tired of working and working and working and paying out, paying out, paying out.
I’d make a big bunch of money. Sometimes you get everything paid.
You didn't have hardly anything left.
The expense to go was over the top and getting worse by the day.
Rules and regulations were putting even more and more and more stranglehold on us.
I didn't like the things I was hearing that were upcoming.
And so I didn't want to be out there the last two years I did it.
I did it I went through the motions but I didn't really want to be there my head wasn't in it.
So one night I dropped the bomb on my wife I said, I muted the TV and I looked at her and I said to my wife, I said, “you're not gonna believe what I'm about to tell you.”
And I didn't think I'd ever say this,
“but I don't wanna fish anymore.”
My heart isn't in it, I don't wanna do it anymore.
She asked me what I was gonna do. I said, “I'm gonna start a tree service business.” And she asked me if I thought I could do it, and I said that I thought I could. I believed in myself, I believed in what I can do.
“…And I have dedicated myself to it 100%.
Make it work, no matter what. No plan B, no other option, make it work.
I didn't have a choice.
I was walking away from the only thing I ever knew.
You fish for 40 years and then you walk away from something when you're 50 years old or more. You damn sure better believe in yourself if you're gonna do something different.
And I do.
And I've made it work.
I'll always be a fisherman heart.
That's what I am.
I have saltwater in my veins.
I always have.
That's who I am.
But it was time for me to go.
I didn't want to disrespect. The business, by not giving it my 100%, which I wasn't,
I felt that the business was good to me for all those years, and it deserved more than 75% of my effort. I was slipping. So it was time for me to go. And that was it. I'm a full-time woodcutter now, but I'll always be a fisherman at heart."
-Avery Scott
Owner of Resilient Tree Service
spent 40 years as a lobster fisherman
5th generation lobsterman
Bunkers Harbor, ME