Hunlock Creek PA
2011

Artistic takes on the classic buoy bring to mind how buoys function for the working lobster fisherman.
The lobster buoy marks where a fisherman sets, or puts into the water, his trap or traps. Buoys are attached by rope to the single, pair or triple group of traps on the bottom of the ocean. Each lobsterman’s buoy color and pattern is unique to him in the area that he is fishing, and is written as part of his fishing license. Legally, a fisherman must always display an “indicator” buoy on his boat, letting marine wardens and everyone else know which buoys are his. This insures that he does not haul traps belonging to another fisherman.
“When you pick your color you want something you can see,” said lobsterman Perley Frazier of Stonington. “You try to pick something that’s not like anyone else’s.”
Buoys come in many colors and patterns, and even more than one material. Traditionally, lobster buoys were made of wood and have been used for more than a century. A book written by John Cobb in 1899 about the lobster fishery in Maine described buoys as consisting of “a tapering piece of cedar or spruce, wedge-shaped, or nearly spindle-shaped, and about 18 inches long. They are usually painted in distinctive colors, so that each fisherman may easily recognize his own. Small kegs are also used as buoys.”
Today, buoys aren’t made out of wood. Instead, most are made from less expensive Styrofoam or plastic. Styrofoam buoys need to repainted often, but can last for many years. Plastic buoys do well, except when they get “crunched” or run over, losing their shape.