Lewiston Teens Trade City Streets for Casco Bay Through Lift All Boats Lobster Program

A group of teenagers from Lewiston spent a late-August morning on Casco Bay, doing work that few of their peers will ever experience — hauling lobster traps, banding claws, and learning the rhythms of a working fishery. Their introduction to the maritime industry came through Lift All Boats, a program designed to open doors for young people who otherwise might never set foot on a commercial lobster boat.

The students gathered before sunrise at Luke's Lobster pier in Portland's Old Port on Aug. 26. Tied to the dock was the Sea Smoke, the vessel that would carry them out onto the water for the day. Carlos, a 20-year-old Central Maine Community College student now in his fourth year with the program, worked knots for the lobster traps in the early light, preparing for another run.

Carlos serves as a student representative for Lift All Boats and has grown into one of the program's most experienced hands. On this trip, he was joined by Gidilson and Ryan, both 17-year-old students at Deering High School in Portland. Gidilson was making his last trip of the season. Two older students, ages 21 and 20, also came aboard, though they asked not to be identified.

Ben Conniff, Lift All Boats' executive director, was on the water with the group, working alongside the students as they sorted catches and examined the day's haul.

The work begins long before the boat reaches its fishing grounds. Students bait the traps using pogies — small baitfish packed into mesh bags — and stack the heavy wooden frames along the rail, ready for launching. Once the Sea Smoke reaches its location near Falmouth, the routine becomes physical: a student grabs the buoy line, hauls the trap up from the bottom, empties it onto the sorting table, and bands any legal-sized lobsters' claws before dropping them into the holding tank.

Lobsters that don't make the cut — those below the minimum size or carrying eggs — go back. So do the crabs, which the students toss aside as they clear each trap. Ryan took a turn at the wheel, steering the Sea Smoke toward the next string of buoys, while others hoisted traps up the dock's walkway when the boat returned to shore.

The program's namesake idea — that rising together lifts everyone — is reflected in the way it mixes experience levels. Carlos, the veteran, guides newer participants through each task, from baiting to banding. Conniff steps in to help examine a catch or answer questions, but much of the teaching happens peer to peer.

Founded to connect Lewiston-area youth with the lobster industry, Lift All Boats has expanded its reach to include students from other Portland-area schools. The program gives teenagers a chance to learn seamanship, earn income, and consider career paths in a working waterfront that has historically been difficult to break into without family connections.

For Gidilson, the Aug. 26 outing marked the end of his season with the program. For Carlos, it was another day in a multi-year journey that has taken him from curious newcomer to student representative and mentor.

By the time the Sea Smoke was moored back at the dock near Falmouth and the traps stacked for the next trip, the students had spent hours doing the kind of labor that built Maine's lobster industry — and had begun building their own small piece of it.

Photos by Libby Kamrowski Kenny of the Portland Press Herald staff appeared alongside the original story.