Lobsters Hide Out in High Surf : Big Waves Wash Away Many Divers’ Hopes

As sure as the tides, they met on the beach at the stroke of midnight--a gathering of the faithful in search of the California spiny lobster.

They came from small desert towns in Riverside and San Bernardino counties and from the cities of Orange County, donning wet suits and plunging into the ocean to mark the kickoff of the annual lobster harvest along the California coast.

But on a night expected to be the most lucrative in the yearly harvest, 6-foot surf pummeled the hunters up and down the Orange County coastline early Wednesday, sending many of them home virtually empty-handed.

“It’s like a flyweight trying to fight a heavyweight champion in there,” said Tod Bishop, 23, of La Habra, describing the large swells moments after emerging from the pounding surf at Woods Cove in Laguna Beach. “The waves knock you off your balance, then take you out. . . . But it’s still fun being part of this thrill.”

Officials of the state Department of Fish and Game said the opening day was also disappointing for commercial fishermen. Game warden Ralph Sugg, who inspected 16 commercial fishing boats at Dana Point on Wednesday afternoon, said many of the fishermen’s traps had “one or no lobster compared to two or three (lobsters) last year.”

“It is not shaping up to be a record-breaking year,” Sugg said.

Nevertheless, about 300 people braved the swells to be part of the annual hunt for the spiny lobsters, joining others who ushered in the five-month season by searching the rocky inlets from Santa Barbara south to San Diego.

Some, like Scott Backer of Rancho Cucamonga, came equipped with $5,000 worth of scuba gear.

“I plan to come back with my limit,” Backer said, “seven of those little critters.”

Others, including 35-year-old Kurt Dodge of La Verne, talked about taking a day off from work Wednesday to savor their first catch.

State wildlife officials say Backer and Dodge are among a growing number of people who are taking to lobster hunting as a sport.

But despite the sport’s growing popularity, Fish and Game officials say the spiny lobster is not a threatened or endangered species. On the contrary, the lobster population appears to be growing steadily. That growth has been reflected in increasingly heavier harvests.

In 1975, a record low harvest of 156,200 pounds was hauled in by commercial fishermen statewide, while in 1989 a record high 742,671 pounds were harvested.

Fish and Game spokesman Curt Taucher said the growth in the lobster population was probably sparked by legislation in 1975 that required commercial fishermen, who harvest the bulk of the lobsters, to design their traps and cages so that adolescent lobsters can escape.

Sport fishermen are limited to a daily catch of just seven lobsters, and it is mandatory for them to measure the size of the crustaceans to make sure they are not smaller than 3 1/4 inches in length. Those caught harvesting smaller lobsters are liable to jail terms of up to six months and fines of up to $1,000.

Game wardens strictly enforce the law, and despite the strong surf conditions, this year was no exception. On Tuesday, Fish and Game officials in Long Beach summoned additional wardens from the Inland Empire to work the lobster shift.

At least two people were cited in Dana Point for taking 11 lobsters before the season opened at midnight Tuesday.

Most, however, returned from the season-opening night empty-handed. Still, the newcomers said they were given their first chance to experience the allure of the sport, the thrill of the hunt.

“There is an inherent danger that goes beyond breaking a limb,” said Dodge. “If you’re under the water and your breathing apparatus goes out, you have to think quickly because there’s no one under there to help you.”

Dodge explained that by law, divers must use their bare hands to grab the sharp-shelled nocturnal lobster, which often scurries for cover in rock and coral formations.

In Laguna Beach early Wednesday, game warden Jan Yost stood on an observation deck overlooking the ocean, pressed a small pair of binoculars against her eyes and surveyed a sea of shimmering, strobe-like lights coming from the divers’ tanks in the water at Moss Point and Woods Cove in Laguna Beach.

“This is like Christmas for them,” Yost said. “They’ve waited all year for this one day.”

But as the divers emerged from the pounding surf, it became clear that this night was not to be one for the record books.

“We promised our friends and families a lobster dinner,” said Bishop, one of the divers from La Habra. “So I guess we’re heading for that fish tank in Alpha Beta.”

The Lobster Tale

The California spiny lobster, Panulirus interruptus , is abundant in Southland waters. However, the catch off Orange and Los Angeles counties in 1990 dipped below 1989’s total, as shown below:

1990 Amount in Pounds: 236,438

1990 Value: $1.32 million

Orange/Los Angeles county district reaches from five miles south of San Onofre, in northern San Diego County, to Port Hueneme, in southern Ventura County.

* The season starts the first Wednesday of October and runs through the end of February. The season is closed from March to September, when the lobster sheds its shell and grows. In Orange County, fishermen prefer the coast from Corona del Mar to Dana Point.

* The spiny lobster, which can grow up to 16 inches long, spends its days in crevices of rock and coral, emerging at night to scavenge on marine life. It returns to dens within a feeding range of hundreds of meters. After several weeks it may move several kilometers to a new location.

* Sport and commercial fishermen are forbidden to harvest lobsters less than the regulation length. This enables lobsters to reproduce at least once.

* The spiny lobster is not an endangered species. More than 700,000 pounds were harvested last year statewide, one-third of that in the Orange/Los Angeles county waters.

* Commercial fishermen sell their catch to wholesalers for about $6 a pound. An average lobster dinner costs about $19.

Source: California Department of Fish and Game

Researched by Kathie Bozanich/Los Angeles Times