By all appearances, Jacob Knowles lives the life of a typical Maine lobsterman. Most days during the busy season, from June to December, he gets up at 3 in the morning in Winter Harbor (pop: 461) and heads down to his boat, the FV Rest Ash-Oar. Then Knowles and his two crewmen set and pull 400 lobster traps a day until about 10, when they take their catch to the Winter Harbor Lobster Coop, on the Schoodic Peninsula above Mt. Desert Island.
Knowles, 30, is a fifth generation Maine lobsterman; he’s been going out on lobster boats since he was in elementary school. He’s been working on his own since he graduated from high school.
But lately Knowles, who’s married with two young children, has been working in a different universe. He’s been posting video clips while he’s out lobstering, and they’ve gone viral. Knowles is now a social media star, with 3.5 million followers on TikTok and 400,000 on Instagram. As of this week, Knowles has 1.24 million subscribers on You Tube, and a total of 782,273,399 views.
He started posting videos about hunting and fishing in Maine when he was a teenager, and then posted some more, largely raw and unedited, from his cell phone on his lobster boat. Things changed in 2020 when Knowles posted a TikTok video about saving a small bird that had been blown offshore; he brought it into the boat’s wheelhouse, warmed it up and carried it back to land. The video went viral, with 6.5 million views. Another video showing how he cooks lobsters on the boat while he’s fishing got 4 million views.
Knowles realized he was on to something; people liked to learn about lobsters, and he enjoys talking about them. He’s filmed videos about lobster productivity, and removing barnacles from crab shells. The videos are popular because Knowles is authentic; you can believe what he’s saying. And the videos take you there, rocking a bit on a lobster boat off the coast of Maine.
Knowles is certainly the best-know lobsterman in Winter Harbor, if not all of Maine. He’s been profiled in The New York Times, The Boston Globe and lots of regional papers.
Trying to monetize his popularity, Knowles recently hired a videographer to go out on the boat. He pays the videographer out of sponsorships that now include American Giant (hoodies and clothing), BetterHelp, a mental health platform, CapCut, which makes graphic design templates, and AG1, a nutritional supplement. He recently signed a deal with the Greenlight Group, a talent management company.
Knowles hopes he will make some social media money to support his family, but lobstering is in his blood. He says he’ll probably always do it, at least until waking up at 3 a.m. isn’t so much fun anymore.
Read more at https://www.instagram.com/jknowles831/?hl=en and see the video below:
