MLA Junior Harvester: Adin Alley

Adin Alley, 17, of Jonesport, recalls when he first started lobstering as a young child with his father Jason. “I remember the early morning, the sunrise. All the boats going out at the same time, like a fleet,” he said.

Adin Alley

Adin has been lobstering “ever since I could walk,” he said, as his father and grandfather did before him. He had his own boat when he was 10, an 18-foot Libby, and now fishes his 150 traps from a 22-foot outboard.

“I set at the end of school, late May or June. And during the year I go with my father after school and on the weekends. Lots of days I go with him until 2 or 3 and then haul a few of mine,” he said.

When asked what he has learned fishing with this father, Adin pauses. “I’ve learned a tremendous amount. I’ve learned about decision making, how to solve problems on your own, like breaking down offshore or hauling a tangle of traps.” When he’s not lobstering, going to school or playing sports, Adin works as a general handyman for the owner of a small island off Jonesport, making trails, repairing buildings, being “an extra pair of hands,” as he put it.

A high school senior at Washington Academy, Adin is considering his future. On the one hand there is lobstering, which he enjoys, but whose future is murky. “The fishery is not going away in the blink of an eye, but it might take a slight fall,” he said. “This year has been quite a weird year for a lot of people.”

On the other hand, there is college, which could lead him far from Jonesport. He visited Maine Maritime Academy last month, which his father and uncle attended. “I think education should come first. I could get an engineering degree there and fish in the summers, like my dad did. It would give me a good base.” But going to school and perhaps working elsewhere as an engineer would mean giving up being his own boss and the freedom that comes with it.

Adin’s thoughts are tempered with his remembrance of his grandfather, Charles Alley, who passed away in August at age 90. “I fished with him in my outboard when he was in his 80s. He was always on a boat. I’m inspired to be like him. It’s good to have a role model even if they are no longer with you.”