Captain Milton Chute and his crew, Roger Wright and Roger’s nephew Justin Wright, left Lubec at 6 a.m. in late December to be out on the waters of South Bay in time to drop their drag at sunrise 7:03 am. Dragging can’t begin until sunrise, according to state regulations. Cobscook Bay regulations limit the daily take to 90 pounds of meat. In good locations, that haul can be made in fewer than two hours, and often in an hour.

The shells are shucked on-board and brought to the buyer. Sale price that day was $13 dollars a pound.