Maine’s ‘lobster lady’ Virginia Oliver, who worked decades in the lobster industry, dies at 105

Virginia Oliver, one of the oldest lobster fishers in the world who trapped crustaceans in Maine for nearly a century, has died. She was 105.

Born in Rockland, Maine, Oliver started trapping lobsters at age 8 alongside her father and older brother at a time when few women worked on the water in the male-dominated industry. She fell in love with the business and went on to become known as the “lobster lady” as she faithfully tended traps for decades

“I like doing it, I like being along the water,” she told The Associated Press in 2021. “And so I’m going to keep on doing it just as long as I can.”

Oliver died Wednesday, according to a family obituary published Monday.

“Her life has been celebrated in books, articles, and across social media platforms worldwide,” the obituary states. “Yet despite her renown, she remained quiet and humble, greeting everyone with a quick, radiant smile and eyes that literally twinkled.”

As she worked on the water over the years, Oliver watched the lobster industry drastically evolve, from a working-class food to a pricey delicacy. Lobsters fetched 28 cents a pound on the docks when she first started trapping them. Today, it’s 22 times that at $6.14 a pound.

Yet many of the aspects of the job remained the same. She had to get up in the early morning hours — long before dawn — and use small fish called menhaden, or pogies, to lure lobsters from a boat once owned by her late husband, the “Virginia.”

“Virginia was more than a local icon; she was a living piece of Maine’s maritime history,” the Maine Lobster Festival said in a statement honoring Oliver, where she once served as grand marshal of the festival’s parade.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who once presented Oliver with a special state recognition for her birthday, posted on social media that the lobster lady’s life inspired “the next century of hardworking Maine fishermen.”