Posted by tleemay on June 18, 2001 at 11:24:44:
For those of you that think the only witnessed tragedy this past
weekend involved training, instructors and 'experienced' divers
plowing the bottom (more on this later), I offer this;
As most of you know, I am not a hard faced hunter, but I do hunt.
Over the years, I have embraced the hunting practice of only taking
what I need for myself. I am a firm believer in the enforcement of the
DF&G Laws as it pertains to my actions while hunting.
As Michael has already posted, we spent many daylight hours at Casino
Point over the weekend, mostly in the water. What I am going to write
about here really pissed me off - and it wasn't even a sport diver
training issue.
I woke up Sunday morning in the hotel room at my usual time, about
7:15 am. MHK was stirring and mumbled something about me getting him
coffee and a bagle after my run. I got up and put on my running shorts
and proceded down the block to the water. As I passed another hotel,
a woman stepped out from the facade carrying a 5 gallon bucket full
of something familiar. I glanced into the bucket and what I saw made
me stop short and stare.
There were five live lobsters of sizes I estimate as being between 1.5
to 3 pounds each. As I stopped to inquire about wher she had
'purchased' them, out from the hotel's facade came her boyfriend
holding yet another lobster - about an 7 to 8 pounder.
They were rather curt and in a hurry as they ran across the street to
a parked lifeguard truck and it's driver. I stood on the corner and
watched the interaction of the two with the bugs and the Lifeguard.
Then all three with bugs in tow drove off in the direction of the
Casino. I did my run from the main plaza to the Casino and back a few times and then stopped to pick up MHK's breakfast.
As I walked out from the now
open Buzy Bee with hot coffee and a bagle, I saw the couple again
walking down from their hotel with another lobster being carried by the boyfriend. They quickly trotted past the Metropole Plaza, across
the street, and to the sand strand adjacent to the harbor. The
boyfriend tossed the lobster into the harbor in about 5' of water. As
I walked up, they were still watching the bug. The girlfriend was
concerned that the lobster wasn't moving initially. I then asked them
where they got the lobsters from.
The couple were at a bar the night before and met a couple of other
divers over cocktails. As it turned out, they were all staying at the same hotel.
One of the two divers was bragging that he and
his buddy has successfully taken lobsters from Casino Point without
anyone seeing the past two days. The couple were a bit pissed off
of this claim and somehow (I am not sure how) were able to get the
lobsters off the hotel patio of the two poachers before they woke up.
It was these lobsters they released back at the point with the assistence of the Lifeguard.
The solo lobster came to light as the poachers realized they were
ratted out and put it in the atrium area of the hotel. The couple
saw the lobster, picked it up, and took it right to the harbor where
I saw them the second time and received the gist of what had happened.
After we watched the solo lobster begin to find deeper water and some
type of structure, I parted company with them and headed up the block
back to the hotel. I was steaming - particularly since the 'alleged' poaching took place in a marine park. On one of the earlier dives Saturday I made a mental note to myself that the lobsters population
was very healthy at the Point in the past. In fact, we only saw two
lobsters on all the dives we did. One of them would have easily gone
9-10 pounds as it's carapace was about 10" w-i-d-e.