MLA Junior Harvester Mason Vintinner
- MLA Staff
- Jun 3
- 2 min read
It was the Covid pandemic that led Mason Vintinner, 17, to lobstering. He was 12 years old when the pandemic hit in 2020. Freeport schools were closed and he had a lot of time, too much time, alone at home. “My parents didn’t want me sitting around doing nothing. So I started going out on the boat with my father,” Vintinner explained.

Photo by K. Vintinner.
Lobsterman David Vintinner started his son out the regular way, teaching him to band lobsters, fill bait bags, and grow accustomed to the long hours of lobstering. “At first I wasn’t super interested in it because I didn’t like waking up so early. It’s hard work and I wasn’t used to it,” Vintinner said. “But I got to be doing it for myself and I fell in love with it.”
Currently Vintinner is fishing from his third boat, a 29-foot H&H called Amy Katherine after his mother, and is well on his way to accumulating the apprentice hours needed to get his commercial license. “I make the most money I can. I don’t spend it, I save it,” he said.
Mason and his father lobster in Casco Bay out of Chebeague Island. At first the two fished together on David’s boat but fairly soon Mason struck out on his own, though his father remained close by. “Whenever I was out my dad was out. He kept an eye on me until he felt I could take the next step to go on my own,” Vintinner said. “He trusted that I could go out on the open ocean and make money myself.”
Vintinner has completed his junior year at Freeport High School; next year he will combine lobstering and schoolwork through a work-study program. He credits lobstering with helping him to mature more quickly than he would have otherwise. “Lobstering isn’t like an hourly job at a store or something. We don’t get to choose what we get paid. We don’t get to choose what we pay for bait. You really have to work to make money,” he said.
The summer can’t come quickly enough for him. “The ocean is my second home now. I keep thinking about the summer, working on the boat. My focus is to grind harder and make money this season,” Vintinner said.
To make money, sure, but also to take part in the lobster boat races. “I am so into the boat races. We race up and down the coast [in his father’s boat Master Mason]. I think we’ve only missed two or three races a year,” he said. “It works out. My dad and I like to race and my Mom loves boat rides.”
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