In Reply to: Bugz me, who's responsible? posted by Divebum Don on October 25, 2006 at 20:09:44:

I remember last year I went diving some guy who found me online and wanted to go lobster hunting. I asked him how his luck was going so far, and he said, "Great! I caught 6 last night!"

I figured he knew some great spot and met up with him and did a dive. We swam around and I saw lots of shorts... but not one legal. I was a little disappointed. At the end of the dive we surfaced and he exclaimed "I just caught the BIGGEST lobster I've ever seen!"
That fired me up and I was excited to see it, so we climbed back on the boat and he opened his bag to reveal....

... a barely legal bug. It was anybody's guess whether it was slightly under or over the minimum size, but he obviously hadn't measured it. "And I got tons more, too!" he said.

I asked to see the rest of them, and he emptied out his bag. He'd caught 5 or 6 more lobsters, none of which were legal at all. They weren't even close- they were tiny! He had just swam around grabbing whatever, giving no thought to size limits.

I told him that he was violating the law and explained the minimum size. He just stared at me, stunned, as I told him he'd better toss out the ones that were short, because if he were ever caught, he could have to pay a couple hundred bucks in fine, per lobster. He just keep looking shocked and dismayed, till he finally threw a couple back, but kept several shorts. I just shook my head and told him if he was ever caught doing some extreme poaching like this, the DFG could confiscate his gear, maybe even his boat.

He just didn't get it, though. As we headed back in, he asked me what I thought the chances were of getting caught or boarded by Fish & Game- in the summer! He wanted to keep catching shorts ALL YEAR ROUND! I told him it was a very bad and stupid idea and just couldn't believe the conversation I was having.