Dana Point : Lobster Season Opens, but Reviews Are Mixed

The local lobster season opened Wednesday, and independent commercial fisherman Chuck Sharpless had 125 pounds of the creatures in his skiff, including a four-pounder, after checking 45 of his 90 traps. But he wasn’t satisfied.

“It didn’t seem like a real good opening day,” Sharpless said after pulling up to a dock in Dana Point Harbor.

He said he would get to the rest of his traps before sundown and would sell the catch for “somewhere around $4 or $5 a pound” to his wholesale customers.

A few minutes earlier, two boats had brought in 130 pounds at Jon’s Fish Market in the harbor, and by 3 p.m. four more skiffs showed up with more than 500 pounds.

Ten other boats working for the market still were at sea, rocking in heavy swells under a gray and occasionally drizzling sky.

“It’s just a little tough to tell yet what kind of season it’s going to be,” said Pat Smith, manager of the market, which operates the biggest lobster fishing fleet--16 boats--in the county.

Only about half a dozen work out of Newport Harbor, most on an independent basis.

Smith said the retail price of lobster this season, at least to start with, will be $7.98 a pound, exactly the same as last year.

The local lobsters, known as spiny lobsters and often called “bugs,” differ from Maine lobsters in that they do not have claws. Only the tail is edible.

Wednesday also was the start of the season for sportfishermen, mostly divers who operate in coves close to shore. There was no immediate report on how they were faring.

“The season starts on the first Wednesday of October and extends through the first Wednesday after March 15, which will be March 18,” said Pat Moore, spokesman for the state Department of Fish and Game.

Commercial fishermen pay $125 for a permit, and sportfishermen must have valid fishing licenses, which cost $10.50 each, and are allowed only seven lobsters a day.

There is no limit on the number of lobsters for commercial fishermen, Moore said, but both they and the sportfishermen may not keep any specimen that measures less than 3 inches from the eye socket to the rear end of the hard shell where the articulated tail begins.