Lifeguards Urge Caution as Lobster Season Nears

As California Fish and Game officials count down to the start of 1990-91 lobster season, San Diego County lifeguards encouraged sport catchers to exercise some restraint before diving in.

The season, which begins at midnight Wednesday, traditionally brings droves of commercial trappers, individual scoop-net fishers and scuba divers to the coast to grope for coveted California spiny lobsters.

San Diego County lobster hunters are a particularly intense group, responsible for more than one third of the state’s 662,000-pound haul last year, Fish and Game officials said.

There are other measures of San Diego’s enthusiasm: floundering divers prompted county lifeguards to respond to a dozen emergency calls during the first 2 1/2 hours of the season last year.

Lifeguards said those rescued were not all inexperienced divers, but that high surf and tricky currents last October made for poor diving conditions.

Recognizing that on opening day it takes more than weather to deter most divers, there were admonishments for the seasoned as well as the uninitiated.

“Their fever for lobsters may cloud their judgment,” said Bert Kobayashi, supervisor for the diving program at UC San Diego and a lobster fisherman for 30 years. “They all probably know conditions are lousy, but many go out anyway.”

Problems also result from “the pride thing,” said Terry Nicklin, president of Diving Locker, a sport outfitter that conducts scuba classes.

“You get people who have been talking for weeks about having a giant lobster party. These are the ones who put pressure on themselves, thinking they have to come back with the big haul, no matter what. They are likely to go in, when they really should cancel.”

Apart from safety concerns, Fish and Game officials will probably arrest more people this year than last for breaching regulations that protect lobsters.

“Each year, there have been more violations,” said Mike Castleton, patrol lieutenant for the Fish and Game Department. “Part of it is because there are more and more people taking.” Some poach undersized lobsters because the competition for legal-sized lobsters is stiff, Castleton said. Lobsters measuring less than 3 1/4 inches from the rear edge of the eye socket to the rear edge of the body shell must be put back.

The number of people who buy a state fishing license to lobster hunt has grown steadily, accounting for some of the competition, he said. From the water’s surface, scoop nets are allowed, but divers must use their bare hands to capture their prey. An individual is limited to seven lobsters.

Castleton added that, although the number of commercially licensed fishers has gone down from last year, the amount of equipment each uses has continued to grow. In turn, the average take has increased. Last year before the season opened, 132 commercial permits were issued, said Jenny Boas, an administrator in the Fish and Game office. This year, a day before the opening, 95 had been issued, she said. There is no limit on the number of legal lobsters a commercial fisher can take.