The 25-year-old bought his boat from longtime Warren fisherman and resident Tom Hall in May 2007, and he has been the captain of the Emily Manning ever since — he kept the original name because it's bad luck to change it, he said. Mr. Berg normally tries to get to his boat by 4:30 a.m., and even earlier in the busy summer season, along with first mate Dan Furtado, 23. They then spend the next 10 to 11 hours on the water, finally coming back with a full haul at 2 or 3 p.m.

Mr. Berg does have a third crew member, but she doesn't do much. Then again, Ruby, his eight-and-a-half-month-old black lab and golden retriever mix, is there mostly for emotional support.

However, Mr. Berg said he loves the lifestyle and can't imagine doing anything else, even though it means an 8:30 p.m. bedtime. He is also a full-time college student as well — when his classes at the University of Vermont are in session, he commutes down once or twice per week to make runs.

"Most of the time we're the first ones out in the summer," he said. "It's a lifestyle thing. I've always been a morning person, and getting up and seeing the sunshine every day, you can't beat it."

The biggest adjustment has been learning how to be the boss, Mr. Berg said. While he worked as a deckhand on the boat since he was 15, he said being the captain brings a whole slew of new responsibilities with it.

"As a captain, there's a lot of stuff that goes on after you leave the boat, like preparing everything for the following day and the maintenance schedule and the bookkeeping aspect," he said. "There are additional responsibilities as you go from deckhand to captain ... You need to decide when things need to be done."

Even with this added responsibility though, Mr. Berg said he feels he's in the right place.

"If you can find something in life you're enthusiastic about doing every day, I think you're successful in life," he said. "That's the biggest thing to me. It's something I like to do every day."

Becoming a lobsterman wasn't the original plan for Mr. Berg — or for his parents, Geoffrey and Dianne Berg of Circuit Drive. While he said they accept his decision now, catching lobsters originally began as a summer job 10 years ago. Mr. Berg said his father, a doctor in Providence, asked around for a summer job from him and they both finally settled on working as a deckhand on Mr. Hall's boat.

"When he asked for that summer job, he had no clue," Mr. Berg said, laughing as he referred to what his father inadvertently started. "It changed my life completely."

Nate Berg looks out from behind the wheel of his trawler while his deckhand, Dan Furtado, 23, hauls a 60-pound lobster pot to the back of the ship.

Small crew efficiency

Although Mr. Berg catches one of the tastiest dishes around — at least judging from the strong sales and high price of lobster — a lot of work goes into getting it to your plate. Each day that Mr. Berg and Mr. Furtado haul traps is long and full of physical labor, with the wonderful side effect of smelling like fish afterward. In addition, the competition for spots can be intense, and Mr. Berg said some lobstermen have intentionally sunk or fished his pots in the past.

Even though they're often working in the dark, the rain or the snow, Mr. Berg and Mr. Furtado try to work with quick, precise efficiency as they check their pots. The process is somewhat similar to an assembly line. Mr. Berg works the front of the boat, using a GPS tracker and natural landmarks to find where his pots are strewn about the bay. From his docking point at Blount Boats though, it does take him about an hour to get out to where his pots are.

Once he finds a pair or trio of his "floaters" marking a lobster pot, he uses a long wooden arm to grab the rope that makes up a string of pots. This is hung on to a hook-and-pulley that is powered by a generator, controlled by Mr. Berg, that quickly drags each 60-pound pot up one-by-one. He then quickly but carefully checks each pot, throwing any crabs and starfish back into the ocean.

Each lobster has to be checked for three things before it can be deemed a keeper, though. First, if it's a female lobster, there can't be any eggs — Mr. Berg and Mr. Furtado dub these lobsters, "eggers," and they have to be thrown back because of state law. Likewise, Mr. Berg measures the carapace, or top part of the lobster's exoskeleton, to make sure it is at least three and three-eighths inches long, another regulation from the state. Finally, he checks for a V-shaped notch in the lobster's tail. Because of a buy-back program run by the state several years ago, these lobsters are not supposed to be caught.

If they do find a keeper, Mr. Berg puts them in a yellow bin directly behind him until the rest of the pots in a particular spot can be checked. Once all of the pots are checked, the lobsters are stored in a bay of water on the boat until Mr. Berg can bring them to shore to be sold.

After Mr. Berg checks all of the lobsters in a particular pot, Mr. Furtado is then responsible for cleaning out the rest of the trap and re-baiting it, normally with skate or fish. He then stacks the pots up as he finishes at the back of the boat. Once an entire line of pots is cleared, Mr. Berg takes the rope off the hook-and-pulley, which causes the freshly-baited pots to slide off the back of the boat as they cut through the water. Depending on the season and how fast they're working, this entire process will be repeated 15 to 30 times in a given day.

Day-to-day life

Since he's working part-time while he finishes his degree, Mr. Berg said he still lives with his parents on the weekend. He has four classes left to finish in Vermont, most of which have to do with either running a small business or environmental and ecological preservation. However, Mr. Berg said in his first year of owning a boat, he has tried to get out about 200 days.

"I don't have to go out every day, so I can play it by ear on the weather," he said.

Normally the crew consists of just Mr. Berg, Mr. Furtado and Ruby, but they have visitors from time-to-time. Mr. Hall comes out on runs from time to time, especially when Mr. Berg was just getting started. Mr. Berg said Mr. Hall still loves the ocean and fishing, but he didn't need such a big boat any longer. He said Mr. Hall is currently working on restoring a smaller boat, and he expected to see him out on the ocean in the summer.

Mr. Berg said his girlfriend, a graduate student living in Burlington, Vt., loves to come out on the boat — even though she's a vegetarian.

"She likes picking all the starfish out of the pots," he said, laughing.

By Stephen Greenwell

sgreenwell@eastbaynewspapers.com