"A long day means heading out to the Gulf of Mexico at 1 a.m. and returning at 6 p.m., after hauling and resetting 500 wooden traps that weigh nearly 150 pounds (70 kilos) each when filled with lobsters. The work is an orchestrated frenzy: one man hauls up the trap, another pulls out the lobsters, measures them, and stows them, while another cleans the wooden cage and stacks it, ready to go back into the sea a choreography of orange overalls."
"But now, just as Florida's commercial lobster season begins, U.S. immigration authorities have been boarding vessels and arresting crews at sea even those with work permits, according to boat owners, crews, and captains. Many immigrant fishermen have left or refuse to go out to sea, and with each passing day operators lose money: their boats sit tied up at the docks without crews, while the traps tagged and ready to be filled with crustaceans pile up like Tetris pieces in the shipyard lots."
Lobster fishermen in Marathon, Florida are being hired for $250 a day, but the work is grueling and many recruits quit after the first day. Crews depart at 1 a.m. and return at 6 p.m., hauling and resetting hundreds of heavy wooden traps in coordinated, dangerous labor. Many captains descend from generations of Keys fishermen, while most crew members come from Corn Island and Bluefields on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast. U.S. immigration authorities have been boarding vessels and arresting crews at sea, including workers with permits. Many immigrant fishermen have left or refuse to go out, leaving boats idle and traps piling up and threatening an industry already battered by storms, gentrification, tourism, and tariffs.
Read at english.elpais.com
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