Lobster Pot Pull tour today. What is it you may ask. Well we board a decent size boat and head out through the headlands to the open ocean where our captain and his deckhand pull up twelve lobster pots that have been sitting in the deep water for up to four days. Anything that they catch in the pots is then shared amongst the tour participants. The pots are then re-baited and moved to various locations for the next tour group. Philip and I ended up with three very good size lobsters from this tour.
Twelve us us were asked to meet at the Kalbarri Marina at 11.30 for a 11.45 departure aboard the Reefwalker Tour Boat. We were meet by our cheery captain Aidan who took no time in getting us underway once the last of the group were aboard. He talked about the lobster and crayfish industry that is well established in this area. We watched as one boat was taking on boxes of bait for its lobster pots and another boat being unloaded of its haul of crayfish. It is a busy marina.
Aidan warned us as we were heading towards the breakwater that the swell was up to two metres today so we were prepared for rough seas. It is very rough as we head through the break but once we are out in the open waters the swell is nowhere near as big. In the calmer waters we see Humpback whales making their migration south and dolphins frolicking near the boat.
The first lobster pot that the two met pull up has the biggest catch of the day with five big lobsters. The next five have one or two. The seventh pot us firmly lodged between a rock and a hard place and no matter how hard Aidan tries he cannot dislodge it. We have to leave it for another day. The remaining pots have none or one and the very last pot has the biggest lobsters. All together we have seventeen lobsters to divide amongst us. There are lots of sharks following us for most of the morning. As the pots are pulled from the water any remaining bait is discarded back into the ocean for the sharks to feed on. Cheap meal for them!
This is a very informative tour and we are shown by Aidan how to grade the lobsters. Anything undersize goes back into the ocean as we can attest as two of our pot pull were thrown back. Aidan talked about the price of lobsters that reached a staggering $150/kg but is now around the $60/kg. China was a big market but when they did their "dummy spit", lobster was on their hit list. Their loss was Aussies gain with the cheaper more affordable price of lobster in Australia.
At the end of tour Aidan gave us a recipe card and instructions on how to painlessly put our lobsters to sleep. We emptied our Engel and turned it on to freeze setting, -18degrees, so they are now successfully euthanised. We will grill our lobsters on the bbq with lots of garlic butter as I don't have a pot big enough to boil them. I will let you know how they taste in another post. Oh, I forget to mention that Lobster is my absolute favourite seafood. 🦞
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