Divers Ready for Start of Lobster Season

That scrabbling sound you’ll hear the first few seconds Wednesday morning will be thousands of lobsters suddenly remembering that it’s October again.

In a scene that should look less like a Jacques Cousteau film and more like the Oklahoma land rush, hundreds of Southern California amateur divers will head for the shoreline Wednesday to be under water the first moments of opening day for the 1987-88 lobster season.

“Everyone gears up on Tuesday and a lot of people hit the water around 11 o’clock,” said Sally Santmyer, owner of Laguna Sea Sports, an Orange County diving shop. “Then at 10 to midnight, all the lobster you’ve staked out move,” she quipped. “It’s like they know when the season starts.”

Aglow With Diving Beams

Not that they don’t get a few advance clues. At nearly every rocky area along the coast, as well as similar spots off the Channel Islands, the night water is suddenly aglow with beams from hand-held diving lights.

Traditionally, lobster season begins immediately after midnight on the first Wednesday in October and ends more than five months later, on the first Wednesday after March 15. The most concentrated lobster-taking, however, occurs in the very first hour, Santmyer said. The most drastic decrease in the lobster population occurs in the first month of the season.

Because lobster live in rocky habitats, the wet-suited lobster hunters generally look for kelp beds visible from the surface of the water, an indication of a rocky bottom, said John Duffy, a marine biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game. Because such spots are found in the waters off the Channel Islands as well as off the mainland shore, many divers prefer to book a spot on one of the handful of dive boats that operate from mainland harbors and sail to the islands, Duffy said.

“You definitely increase your chances of getting lobster by going to the islands,” said Darren Douglass , a diver and sales manager of Sport Chalet sporting goods in La Canada Flintridge. “They’re not hit as hard and the pickings tend to be better.”

Still, on the first night of the season, mainland-shore divers make up the greater force of lobster divers, said Bob Scott, a diving instructor at Laguna Sea Sports.

“The most popular way is beach diving,” he said. “And it’s the hardier people who do it, or the new divers who want the novelty of the first night of lobster season. Then the thrill can wear off real quick. They find it’s kind of cold out there.”

As with much fishing lore, exactly where to find the best and largest lobsters is a mystery. (Lobsters, which tend to be nocturnal feeders, can be taken any time of the day or night.) According to several diving sources, the rocky waters of southern Orange County in the Laguna Beach/Dana Point area have yielded good catches, as have various breakwaters and the shores of Palos Verdes Peninsula and Malibu. The northern Channel Islands off Santa Barbara, particularly San Nicolas Island, are said to be home to larger populations than Catalina Island.

“The last couple of years on opening night, a boat at Catalina beat us in terms of numbers, but we got the bigger ones on San Nicholas,” said Mickey Pittman, the captain of the Wild Wave, which sails regularly to the Channel Islands out of San Pedro.

The larger dive boats that operate from the Southern California mainland usually are booked well in advance for opening-night divers; bookings are available for subsequent days.

Price Varies

The price for a single-day dive on most Southern California dive boats, said Pittman, range roughly from $30 to $60, depending on the distance traveled. Two-day dives run to the $150-and-up range, he said.

But, say the veterans, lobstering is a chancy pursuit. A spot that may have been swarming with bugs --diver lingo for lobster--last year, or even last month, may be barren on Wednesday.

Theoretically, taking a lobster is simple for a diver. The procedure: Find it, grab it, stuff it into a small net or bag, take it home and cook it.

The reality, legal and otherwise, is somewhat harsher, however.

A diver must take a lobster only with the hands, said Duffy, and not use any device or trap. The diver also must make sure the lobster measures at least 3 inches from the small ridge over its eyes to the spot on its body where the tail begins. This is called the carapace length and must be measured with a device called a fixed-caliper gauge, which can be purchased from dive shops for between 50 cents and $2.

The daily bag and possession limit--the number of lobster that can be taken or be in a person’s possession during a single day--is seven.

And no diver over the age of 16 can take lobster without a valid California sport fishing license, which is sold at sporting goods and other stores for $11.50, Duffy said.

Finally, no lobster can be bagged in marine-life refuges along the coast. These areas are marked with signs along the beach front, said Duffy.

Think Like a Lobster

Once the legal obligations are met, the diver must start thinking like a lobster, said Santmyer.

“They live back in the rocks,” she said, “and the big ones are the ones who have their domiciles the farthest back. They know the length of a human arm and they go back about four inches beyond that. And finding them is just the first part of the trick. You have to develop a technique for grabbing them. They’re fast and they usually have a back door they can run out of.

“My husband uses an orange glove and waves it at the lobster to kind of mesmerize it, then sneaks around and grabs it with the other hand.”

Overrated Danger

Because divers must often reach into rocky crevasses to snatch out the lobsters, they sometimes encounter eels who share the lobsters’ love for such a habitat, said Douglass. However, he also said, the danger is overrated.

“The only problem would be if you reached back into a hole and shoved a hand down one’s throat,” Duffy said. “It’s a good idea to shine your light in first to make sure the coast is clear.”

Duffy also suggested that divers carry a backup light for night diving, station a friend on shore with a light to guide them back (if they’re making a beach dive) and wear gloves to protect against sea- urchin spines.

What to do once the thrill of the hunt is over? If you’re not going to cook the lobster right away, Duffy suggested freezing it (alive) or storing it (again, alive) in the vegetable crisper of the refrigerator in about an inch of sea water for cooking the next day.

Several dive boats of various sizes operate out of Southern California harbors. While likely booked for the first day of lobster season, they will be taking reservations for cruises during the remainder of the season. Following are some of the larger dive boats operating from the mainland, with phone numbers for reservations:

MARINA DEL REY

Vikingship--(213) 820-5657 SAN PEDRO

Atlantis--(714) 531-5582

Cee Ray--(213) 519-0880

Golden Doubloon--(213) 831-5148 or 547-3010

Maverick--(213) 547-3824

Scuba Queen--(213) 691-0423

See Vue--(714) 974-4272

Westerly--(213) 833-6048

Wild Wave--(213) 534-0034 LONG BEACH

Mr. C--(213) 831-9449 or 437-4447

No Swet--(818) 796-4287 NEWPORT BEACH

The Last Bite--(714) 832-8658 DANA POINT

Diavatis--(714) 661-0320

Moonraker--(714) 496-5891 or 855-2323