Matthew Burnham, a junior at Boothbay Region High School, is a fourth generation lobster fisherman.

Lobstering isn't an easy occupation by any stretch. It requires physical strength and mental perseverance.

It can also be dangerous — the waters off Boothbay Harbor are cold and sometimes treacherous.

“I went lobstering with my grandfather, and then with my uncle (Robbie Begin),” Matt said about his first trips out to sea. “My grandfather died when I was six.”

His grandfather, Charlie Begin, for whom the annual Boothbay Harbor Lobster Boat Races were named, died in 2004.

The next year Matt started hauling traps with his mother and younger brother, Sam, in a skiff they named Pirates of Pirates Cove, for their home port.

“It's a little classic wooden skiff, and we're hopefully going to put it in (the water) this summer,” he said.

The brothers, who still go out hauling together, now have a bigger boat, the Begin-Again, named for their grandfather. Matt hopes to set 300 lobster traps this summer.

They will haul their traps all summer and into the fall, Matt said.

Asked how lucrative lobster fishing is for him, Matt replies in typical secretive Maine lobsterman fashion: “I make enough.”

And he saves most of it.

“I spend as little as possible, usually just enough to make more money,” he said.

Next fall, when Matt is a senior in high school, he said he's going to spend some of it on a piece of land where he will build a house.

Douglas Carter, owner of The Sea Pier in Boothbay Harbor, said he thinks Matt Burnham is going places.

“I believe that Matt is really looking up to Andrew Hallinan (another young area lobster fisherman), who is helping him,” Carter said. “Andrew is a good mentor, and I think he is steering (Matt) in the right direction.”

This fourth generation lobsterman/student-athlete isn't sure about what he'll do after high school, but whatever endeavors he chooses to pursue, they're sure to be noteworthy.

“I like lobstering,” Matt said. “But it's a pretty up and down business, so I'll either do an apprenticeship or get my bachelor’s degree in a marine electrician area, so I'd be my own boss — and could still go lobstering in the summer.”