Lobster Shift : Crustaceans: A state agency grants different season opening dates to recreational divers and commercial fishermen. The latter are angry.

At one minute after midnight tonight, commercial lobster fishermen will begin pulling traps they have set over the past few days in anticipation of the opening of lobster season.

But this year, recreational divers have beaten commercial fishermen to the catch.

A decision by the California Fish and Game Commission in December allowed the divers to take California spiny lobster beginning at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, four days before commercial fishermen can start pulling their traps.

The decision has pitted lobster fishermen against recreational divers.

“It will have an impact,” said fisherman Jim Colomy, who sets his 300 lobster traps at San Nicolas Island. “There’s no question there will be less lobster to take on Wednesday.”

The lobster fishermen, also called trappers, fear that the early onslaught of divers will not only deplete the pool of legal-sized lobsters they can trap, but could cause the crustaceans to disperse into deeper waters, making it more difficult to catch them.

However, the divers say they only want more access to a natural resource.

“This gives the diver more of an opportunity to participate at the beginning of the season,” said Locky Brown, a longtime scuba diver from Ventura who has been active in the debate.

Many recreational divers say the early opening date gives them a greater opportunity to take “bugs”--slang for lobster--which by law must be caught by hand or with a special hoop net.

Under California Department of Fish and Game policy, hunting and fishing seasons open on Saturdays whenever possible to allow for maximum public participation, said Dave Parker, senior marine biologist for the state agency.

This year, instead of opening the season on Saturday to the commercial trappers as well, fish and game commissioners decided to set different opening dates.

Trappers said there should have been more data gathered on the possible impact of the early season before the decision was made, said Diane Pleschner, manager of the California Seafood Council, which represents 3,500 people, mostly fishermen.

No firm numbers were available on the number of active certified scuba divers in California, the number who regularly dive for lobster or the number of lobsters caught.

“We need to know how much impact the sport divers have,” said Pleschner, whose organization is paying for an independent research firm to gather data on the subject. “Without that half of the equation, you can’t say it’s fair.”

To gain that information, volunteer scuba divers and biologists from the California Department of Fish and Game spent last weekend at the boat-launching facility at Channel Islands Harbor, talking to divers in private boats who were out looking for lobsters.

In addition to measuring the immediate catch, divers were given forms to document their total take during the first 11 days of the season and their time spent underwater trying to catch lobster, information that will be used by state officials. Divers are being asked to maintain a log of their lobster catch throughout the season that ends March 17. That information will be used for a future survey.

Counters were also at three sites in San Diego County last weekend, and will also be counting next weekend. Volunteers will be at the Channel Islands Harbor facility from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

On opening weekend, biologists and volunteers at Channel Islands Harbor interviewed 71 divers and measured 176 lobsters, said Kristine Barsky, a Department of Fish and Game marine biologist. Charter boats are required to keep a count on the number of lobsters caught.

Veteran diver Brown, co-founder of the Channel Islands Council of Divers, volunteered to collect data last weekend. He applauded the decision to give early access to recreational divers.

“We aren’t able to fully participate in the fishery because of the great number of legal lobster that are taken by commercial trappers,” said Brown, who also passed out surveys at Ventura Harbor over the weekend.

In general, most divers going out in the middle of the night Saturday, were pleased with the convenience of a weekend opener and didn’t believe that it would negatively affect the commercial fishermen’s efforts.

“It’s nice getting a head start,” said Bryan Crawford, 23, a refrigeration mechanic from Ventura who caught two lobsters on opening night. He was the only one in his group of four divers to catch a legal-sized lobster, mainly due to rough seas and poor underwater visibility Saturday night. “If it wasn’t for the bad conditions, we would have all gotten our limit.”

Yet, the early opener didn’t make much difference to some scuba divers.

“It’s finding the right spot. It’s all luck,” said Leonard Sanchez, a 46-year-old tree surgeon from North Hills who came back empty-handed after a trip to Santa Cruz Island in his private boat.

One benefit of this change will be to curb illegal trap robbing by some scuba divers, Parker said. Commercial fishermen are permitted to drop their traps in the water six days in advance of opening day, but cannot begin baiting them until 24 hours before the season officially opens.

“There have been complaints on opening day, and with some justification, that many sport divers take the lobster that are in the traps. It is difficult to enforce,” Parker said. “One way to defuse the tension is to separate the openers.”

As for the effect of the earlier opening on the lobsters’ behavior, Parker said, “that remains to be seen.”

But Colomy, a Santa Barbara County resident, believes that the change could have a detrimental effect on some commercial fishermen in the state. It takes eight to 12 years for a lobster to mature to 3 1/4 inches--the minimum size that both trappers and recreational divers can take from the ocean. Trappers can take as many legal-sized lobster as they can catch; recreational divers are limited to seven per day.

The about 400 licensed commercial fishermen in California caught 600,000 pounds of lobster last season, down 16% from the 1990-91 season.

“There are only so many that turn legal each year,” Colomy said. “You’re allowing (recreational divers) to take their portion and that threatens the economics of our industry.”