Deadliest Catch - Lobster Hooping; a Long Beach Harbor Adventure

Since my arrival in LA my cousin's husband is talking about his lobster hooping. Lobster is a very foreign and exotic crustatean for me. Shrimp are so common that it's not so interesting anymore, but lobster still feel high class and expensive for me. So when my cousins husband said he catches his own, I didn't hesitated. I wanted to go!

For some years one of my guilty pleasures is watching 'The Deadliest Catch', a documentary about fishermen fishing for spider crab. Although lobster hooping on a low scale, just for fun is not so scary, cold and hard work as fishing for crab or even lobster out on the open water. My lobster hooping adventure ended up being just as exciting and scary as The Deadliest Catch.

up: Me and my dad in front of the boat before hitting the water

down: Me and my nephew prepping bait on the boat

At the harbor I put myself in my banana suit and layered up. The boat hit the water and working began. Together with my little nephew I prepared the bait. Filling up the cases with chopped up sardines and salmon heads. The moment we hit open water, the power of the boat's motor became feel able. Hitting some waves and feeling the wind hitting my face.

After a fast ride we arrived in the Long Beach Harbor. We looked for places to drop our hoops and after we dropped all the hoops, an hour later, we went back to the first hoop. The Californian law doesn't allow for closed traps, so the moment you get up the hoop, you need to pull as fast as possible. This makes the lobster (hopefully) or other caught animals pushed to the bottom of the hoop, giving it no change to swim away.

Pulling up the first basket I got an idea of what was waiting for me. No lobster, but some crab and an octopus. It was such a rush, I saw octopus before, but always in aquariums, so feeling it in my hand was exciting! I was excited to do the second one, ending up with around the same catch.

As we progressed we had some empty hoops, supposedly because a seal or sea-lion played around with our bait and hoops. And then we hit the jackpot! I pulled up a 30-40 feet deep hoop, pushing my muscle limit. When it surfaced a huge lobster became visible. Holding it up at his antennas his strength became visible. He sizzed, moving his whole mouth and flapping his tail at me.

I saw live lobsters before, in Chinese restaurants and supermarkets. But never did I have to touch or hold a living specimen. It didn't look like the lobsters you see in restaurants. It had no claws and a lot of spikes, covering his antennas, head and sides of his tail.

 Lob·ster, Maine and Californian   from Artist book 2014, Los Angeles

In the next three or so hours we caught one after another, going bigger and bigger. Making all of us more thrilled. I felt like a little girl, going to the garden and collecting my own grown strawberries, times a 100! Coming to an end, I noticed I got tired. And the empty hoops don't really give you an energy boost.

We we're warned for incoming fog around midnight. So when we noticed some fog around 10.30pm. We decided to make a last round and go back to the harbor. Hoping to beat the fog. Within minutes after leaving the fog-less area, we ran into a layer of fog. It still looked ok, we could see lights of a big boat in the distance.

The closer the lights came, the more confused I was. I'm not a water person, so being on a boat is not an ordinary thing. I kept asking what kind and what part of the boat we saw. The answer never came. The kit boat was now so close, that I saw somebody walk out of the control chamber. I realized in a split second, we're facing the side of a boat. I looked to my left and saw a small light, suddenly the whole outline of the boat started to shape. We we're running for the side of a huge tugboat!

I don't remember what I yelled out, but we made a sharp U-turn. Causing some big waves in the water around us. From that point I was alert, focused. The next hour or so the fog became thicker and thicker. Until you could just see a few feet away from the boat. My little nephew got so scared that he just knocked out in the back.

Finally we entered our harbor. Slowly the bouys became visible, de harbor, the docks. Everyone was relived, we made it back safely. All my excitement from hooping had made place for pumping adrenaline of being scared and alert. No finally save I realized how tired I was and sat down for the first time since we left our fishing spot.

We arrived at the dock. Preparing to step on the dock, I noticed a sealion head at the back of the boat. It was so close and big, we all looked at it. Suddenly it jumped up, showing his teeth and body. My curiosity immediately turned into fear. He was jumping up just where my 10 year old nephew was sleeping. We tried to wake him and pulled him up. He didn't wake until he saw that huge sealion jump up on the side of the boat. I screamed like a little girl, yelling that we weren't safe. My nephew started freaking out too, both of us yelling and screaming.

'Blackfish' trailer

I saw sealions before, from a far in the wild and up close in SeaWorld and in the Dutch version of seaworld. Where the trainers walk around with the sealions in this clowns-act. But this was a wild animal, probably not trained and bigger than us humans. It also didn't help that I saw the documentary 'Blackfish' a week before my fishing trip. A documentary about a killer whale, that since his captivity killed (and supposedly eaten) three people.

This documentary made such an impression that my trust issues with animals worsened. So being eye tot eye with this huge sealion, this big male, wild sealion scared the crap out of me. I was convinced that if one of us made a wrong move he would grab us and eat us. The sealion swam around the boat, going under the dock, surfacing again, jumping up again.

At this point I stood in the cooler, in the middle of the boat. Holding on to the windshield. My dad went on the dock and, in my opinion started to provoke the sealion. Clapping in his hands and talking to this huge animal. I yelled that he should stop, that it was a wild animal and that if he wanted to could just jump on the dock or boat and grab you.

Even after we left the boat and the dock, the sealion waited. Swimming around the boat. All the way until we drove the trailer (with boat) out of the water again. Until the very end I wasn't sure if the sealion would come on land and just grab one of us.

Away from the dock, loading station and most important, away from the sealion. We changed into some warm dry clothes and got ready for the ride back. At home we unloaded our catch, cleaned up and tried to get rid of the fish smell. Of to bed, tomorrow waits a lobsterfeast!

Catch of the day:

6 lobsters ,weighing up to 10 kg /22 lbs, the heaviest one weigh over 5 lbs

4 red stone crabs

2 octopus