Divers’ Head Start Doesn’t Hurt Lobster Harvest : Fishing: Commercial fishermen were afraid that letting sports divers go first would scare lobsters away--but the opening day’s catch was good.
For more than half a century, commercial and sport fishermen have shared the same starting date of Oct. 3 to begin lobster fishing. Yet this year the California Fish and Game Commission kept commercial fishermen on the dock until Wednesday, giving thousands of sportsmen a four-day head start.
“It’s like putting a cat in a room full of mice for four days, then taking him out and putting traps in,” said Craig Ghio, vice president of Anthony’s Fish Grotto in San Diego. “Do you think those mice are going to come back out and get into the traps?”
So, when the first boats launched into the foggy day Wednesday, the commercial fishermen worried that recreational divers may have chased lobsters into hiding. As the boats returned with their catch Wednesday night to Anthony’s, one of the largest local buyers of California lobster, hundreds of pounds of lobsters eased their fears for this year.
“It looks like the catch is coming in at about more than last year’s level,” Ghio said, “and last year was a good one.”
A controversy has existed for decades between sport and commercial lobster catchers, said Dave Parker, senior biologist for the California Fish and Game Department. The new starting dates are, in part, an attempt to answer complaints from both sides.
Commercial fishermen complain that sport divers--and some commercial harvesters--can’t resist taking lobsters out of the commercial traps early, Parker said. The sport divers complain that their chances of catching lobster are less because thousands of commercial traps are set the evening before they dive.
Traditionally, commercial traps are laid down six days before the season starts and the traps are baited 24-hours before opening day. But the new regulation allows sport fishermen to catch lobster three days before the traps are baited.
“We are going to be looking at the data very closely, to see if the change has effects on the commercial industry,” Parker said.
The Fish and Game Department maintains that giving sport divers a four-day head start won’t have a large impact on the commercial industry, said department biologist Bill Maxwell.
Before the change was implemented, the department completed an environmental impact analysis and projected that the four days were not going to have a severe impact on the lobster, Maxwell said.
The commercial fishermen argued that the department lacked data to estimate how many lobsters were caught by sportsmen, said August Felando, a retired San Diego attorney who filed a lawsuit on behalf of Southern California Lobster Fishermen’s Assn. to keep the season starting dates the same. The lawsuit will be heard in a Sacramento Superior Court early next year, he said.
Fishermen had no notice that the commission was considering changing dates during its hearings last year, Felando said. When the date changes were proposed in 1989, the commercial industry protested.
The commission also decided to open the lobster season to sport fishermen early because of a policy scheduling opening day on Saturdays for a variety of animals, such as deer and doves, said fish and game department representatives.
“It’s a touchy thing,” said San Diego charter boat owner Bill Johnston, commenting on the dispute between the sport divers and the commercial lobster fishermen. Johnston takes sport divers to the Cortez Banks, 95 miles offshore from San Diego, where he has dived for 20 years.
The San Diego sport lobster season got off to a slow start this weekend.
“When you can’t see the end of your arm, it’s a bit hard to see a lobster,” biologist Parker said, describing the cloudy water.
The lobster is plentiful enough to allow the change in season dates, Parker said. The number of lobsters have increased in the past 10 years, hinting that the species has flourished since the traps were equipped with escape ports, allowing younger, smaller lobsters to get out.
The minimum size for a legal catch is 3 1/4 inches, measured from eye to end of tail, and it usually takes a lobster 8 to 12 years to grow that big, he said.
Last year’s lobster harvest contributed about $1.3 million to San Diego’s economy, according to Fish and Game Department figures and San Diego Chamber of Commerce economic analyses. The fishing industry contributed roughly $26 million to the local economy.
