Posted by . on October 02, 2001 at 18:51:03:
In Reply to: Update on the San Diego lobster poacher posted by shark-92107 on October 01, 2001 at 22:38:25:
Shell game
This lobster tale has some local divers seeing red
By John Wilken
STAFF WRITER
September 30, 2001
Lobster poaching seems like one of those wink-and-nod crimes: illegal, yes, but no big deal -- not when terrorists are hijacking airliners and flying them murderously into skyscrapers.
Most of the divers who went into local waters this weekend in search of the tasty crustaceans -- the sport fishing season opened Friday at midnight and runs through mid-March -- know a cheater or two.
People take eight lobsters when the law allows seven. They keep one that has a body length of 3 inches, when the minimum size is 3.25 inches. They come across a couple of lobsters while diving in July, out of season, and sneak them home for dinner.
Nobody gets all that upset about it, in part because the California Spiny Lobster population appears stable, and in part because even if you wanted to call a cop, you'd have difficulty finding one. Fish and Game wardens are scarce.
Here's how lightly the laws are regarded: Four sheriff's deputies were cited for poaching, in 1988. They were on duty, in a county boat, supposedly practicing their search-and-rescue techniques.
the off-limits waters of the La Jolla Ecological Reserve with 94 lobsters -- a season's worth for most sport fishermen. Wardens spotted them and wrote them tickets.
In theory, each lobster was an infraction punishable by six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. But the courts don't exactly drop the hammer on poachers, either. The men pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor count each.
Sosnowski paid fines totaling $715, spent 100 hours picking up trash and cleaning restrooms in city parks, and forfeited his wet suit and other diving equipment. He was put on probation for three years.
Halfway through it, he got caught again. And this time, it appears, nobody is winking and nodding.
Diving for lobster, when done legally, is tricky. You can only use your hands. No spears or nets. And since lobsters are nocturnal, the best fishing is at night, when it's dark, which means that divers give up one of their hands to hold a light.
"It's an acquired skill," said local diver John Moore, "and until you acquire the skill, you are not going to get very many."
The lobsters here don't have claws but they have sharp spines on their tails. They live in the rocky reefs just off the local coastline, in waters some 25 to 30 feet deep.
La Jolla and Point Loma are popular hunting grounds. The busiest fishing time is the first week of the sport season, especially the first four days, before the commercial fishermen can set their traps.
It takes a lobster about seven years to grow to legal size, when it will weigh about 2 pounds. A trophy lobster weighs about 5 or 6 pounds, although there are records of monsters reaching 26 pounds. They can live up to 30 years.
"The key to fishing successfully is to keep moving, cover a lot of area," said Brian Keith, a diver who works at San Diego Diver's Supply. "The majority of the time you are looking under rocks, in crevices. You have to watch out for urchins, which can stab you, and moray eels. And sometimes you might have a seal that takes an interest in what you are doing."
Lobsters swim backward by moving their tails, and when they sense danger they try to hide in the kelp or wedge themselves into rocky dens. Fishermen who pull on antenna or legs often pull them off. The appendages grow back.
"Every diver has cuts and bruises," said Maurizo Mangini, another San Diegan who free-dives (no air tanks) for lobster.
Keith said he knows divers, especially those who work "secret spots" from boats, who get limits of seven lobsters every time they fish. "The real hard-core guys do it because they love to eat lobster," Keith said. "It can become a bit of an addiction."
Mangini disagreed. He said even the best divers he knows only get 50 lobsters in an entire season. "I've heard stories of people catching 100 lobsters in a season, but that is a fanatic, someone who goes out almost every day."
Which may explain why Marc Sosnowski has made some people angry.
Fish and Game Lt. Dan Sforza got the tip in May. He said an informant reported that Sosnowski was still poaching, taking lobsters out of local waters and making $400 to $500 each week selling them to restaurants and co-workers at the Pepsi plant in Kearny Mesa.
An undercover team came down from Sacramento and began watching. About one week into the operation, on June 27, this (according to a court affidavit) is what happened:
At about 8:30 a.m., Sosnowski left his home in a green 1974 VW Thing with a "PB DIVER" personalized license plate. He drove to the 6200 block of Camino de la Costa in La Jolla and put on dive gear.
He walked into the water north of Casa Cove and stayed submerged for longer than an hour. When he came back out, the wardens said, he was carrying a spear in one hand and a full yellow game bag in the other.
They watched him drag the bag out of view behind some rocks, then return to his car and take off his dive equipment. While Sosnowski was changing into shorts and a T-shirt, one of the wardens checked the bag. He saw what he estimated to be 75 to 100 lobster tails.
Grabbing a towel and another bag, Sosnowski then walked back toward the beach. He stopped by the wall and loaded the lobsters into the bag before returning to his car.
The wardens followed Sosnowski home (he and his wife own a house just off Balboa Avenue), then trailed him later to Jasmine, "The Seafood Restaurant of San Diego." There, according to the wardens, he sold lobsters to at least one employee of the Kearny Mesa restaurant. They also reported finding 13 of the tails in the restaurant's storage freezer. (Jasmine has not been charged; its employee has been to court and pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count.)
Sosnowski went to work, where wardens took him into custody. Sforza said that as the handcuffs were being put on, Sosnowski asked, "Can't you just write me a ticket like last time?"
He allegedly broke just about every lobster-protection law on the book. Fishing out of season. Catching too many. Catching them with a spear (wardens went into the water after he left and recovered punctured bodies). Removing the tails from the bodies, which makes it impossible to measure for legal size. Selling sport-caught fish.
He also allegedly took an abalone while he was at it. Abalone are a protected species. That infraction alone carries a potential fine of at least $15,000.
"That is one expensive shellfish," said Kathryn Lange, the deputy city attorney who is prosecuting the case.
She has charged Sosnowski with more than 50 violations of Fish and Game laws. He is facing up to five years in jail and almost $140,000 in fines.
Sosnowski didn't appear at his first two court dates (and wasn't required to). But John Moore and Steve Haynes were there.
They are both divers in San Diego.
"We don't want them to just slap this guy on the wrist again," said Moore, a computer programmer who runs a diving Web site on the Internet, www.divebums.com.
"Mr. Sosnowski has an awful lot of people in the dive community awfully irate," said Haynes, an attorney and board member of the San Diego Council of Divers.
They and other divers have been calling Lange and writing her letters. "Our fear is that if we don't express outrage, he'll just be back out there, doing it again," Moore said.
Their approach is patterned after a successful one in Northern California. The Sonoma County Abalone Network, formed in 1994, has a Court Watch program that monitors poaching cases, urging stiffer penalties.
"Most of the people who dive for lobsters are responsible about it," Moore said. "They recognize that the laws are there for a reason -- so that next year, there will be lobsters, too."
Sosnowski has pleaded innocent. He is "contrite and remorseful," according to his attorney, Stephen Brodsky. The defense counsel said he hopes to work out an agreement with Lange that will dispose of the case before trial. The next court hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. 10/3
"We are far apart," Lange said. The city thinks jail time is appropriate, considering Sosnowski's history. Brodsky doesn't.
"We're not talking about crimes against other people," the defense lawyer said. "These are crimes against crustaceans. I hope we can keep things in perspective."
Copyright 2001 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.