Lobstermen Truck Series – Tom Hale

Lobstermen Truck Series – Tom Hale, originally uploaded by captjoe06.

Here is Tom Hale and his GMC pick up truck.

Here Tom replaces ID tags on some used lobster traps he purchased from Mark Ring. He is taking Mark Rings tags out and putting his tags in.
There are several reasons for the ID tags. Sometimes a lobster trawl will lose it’s buoys. The tags are a way for another lobsterman to identify the lost gear if they cross groundlines underwater and get the gear up in a tangle of the two lobsterman’s gear.
Lobstermen also have a certain number of traps they can set. These tags are issued from the govt. So the govt issues a certain number of ID tags per lobsterman. It is a way to make sure that lobstermen don’t set more than the allotted amount of lobster traps because each trap has to have a tag.