While most girls her age make money babysitting if at all, nine-year-old Lindsay Durkee of Islesboro has chosen another way to earn her spending money. During the island’s fishing season, she hauls a string of 150 lobster traps using her own boat, the LINDSAY D.
Lindsay got her start lobstering two years ago while accompanying her dad, Randy, aboard his fiberglass Willis Beal boat, the JIM BEAM. Randy divides his work schedule between carpentry and lobstering, with which he’s been involved for over 20 years.
After helping her dad for the remainder of that year (and learning the ins and outs of the fishing profession in the process), Lindsay decided she wanted to expand into a business of her own, so dad arranged a trade – an old car swapped for a wooden boat for his daughter. After much scraping and painting and some repair work, the LINDSAY D was ready for the water.
Lindsay still helps out on her dad’s boat occasionally, but in season it’s dad’s turn to give her a hand. Once Lindsay’s out of school for the year, she and her dad go out every third day to haul her traps after dad is finished hauling his own string. For her buoys, Lindsay picked colors that would be easy to see – neon yellow and bright blue with a yellow spindle. Randy and Lindsay sell the lobsters they catch to Young’s Fish Market in Belfast. Lindsay’s lobsters are crated with her colors so that she and her dad can tell the difference.
Lindsay holds an apprentice license, and while she modestly will admit only to being “kind of good” at lobstering, she says really enjoys being out on the water with her dad. Despite the hard work involved, she finds lobstering to be fun, and has managed to save a substantial amount of money.
According to Lindsay, her father is an excellent teacher, helping her to learn how to get the traps ready, tie knots, drive the boat and navigate the local waters, especially using a compass in foggy weather. Pandy, Lindsay’s mom, feels it’s her daughter’s natural curiosity about the ocean and interest in science that have kept her interested in lobstering. Lindsay is a good student, and Penobscot Bay provides an excellent classroom.
Since regular school has started on Islesboro for another year, Lindsay and her dad can only go out fishing together on Saturdays. Soon it’ll be time to haul the boats and traps out for the winter, followed by boat repair and maintenance time during the coming months. This season was a pretty good one for Lindsay, and she’s looking forward to next year, when she’ll once again be out on the open sea, having fun while learning the time-honored trade of lobstering at her father’s side.