Diving for Scallops at the Long Beach Oil Rigs

[dytis-sm]

An update on the debated issue... Seems that there are inconsistencies on the boats, locations, and charters that allow scallop hunting. Same boat different charter can be completely a different scenario. I was booked on a trip on the same boat on one week and was told no scallops, and on a trip the following week it was ok. Now I am booked on another boat, the charter is cool with hunting within F&G limits, but I am told by the captain not to touch scallops because there is an agreement with commercial companies to harvest the rigs... (like I will put a dent to their business with my limit of 10 and whatever I can find above 100ft)

So when you book your next trip and think of wonderful filet mignon size scallops, check with the operator and charter.

 

[merxlin]

...............Now I am booked on another boat, the charter is cool with hunting within F&G limits, but I am told by the captain not to touch scallops because there is an agreement with commercial companies to harvest the rigs... (like I will put a dent to their business with my limit of 10 and whatever I can find above 100ft)...........................................

(Bold added)

That comment is where the problems start as far as I am concerned. You are right- your limit will not affect their haul significantly. However - 3 boats a week, 5-10 hunters per boat times whatever the weekly span is between the commercial harvests, and it very much will impact them. Just like taking lobster our of Casino Point before it was protected- it was legal, but it also negatively affected the diving experience for everyone else.

 

[dytis-sm]

I am all for rules and protected areas. My update is for those that go on the rigs and expect to be able to pick scallops. And the advice was just to ask the charter and the captain separately. Whether right or wrong, that is another question. I was not debating MPAs which I do not mind or interested in violating.

For the record the reason I was given is that there is an agreement with the oil rigs and the company that cleans the sunken structure for first dibbs to the scallops, not protecting the species. And this is where I added my sarcastic quantity comments. I doubt that every diver that goes to the rigs is interested in scallops. Most are not interested. On the boat I was on, out of 21 divers, only four were fishing for a grand total of 40 scallops...

 

[drbill]

Thanks, Ken, for providing that information. Although I don't hunt any more, I do enjoy scallops taken by my buddies with licenses. When I dive the rigs, the only thing I "take" is video.

 

[Power Scuba]

Question, Ken. You say the ownership of the rigs has changed at least once or twice since you helped negotiate a Gentleman's Agreement. (Nothing in writing.) I take it, from the tone of your message, the agreement has not been updated or "renegotiated" with the new owners. What reason do you have, then, to believe that any type of agreement, Gentleman's or otherwise, remains in force? Would that not take new talks with the new owners? A Gentleman's Agreement, especially one involving so many disparate parties, is flimsy enough, but expecting a GA to automatically be adopted/inherited by a brand new company seems not realistic.

Perhaps then, individual boats have worked out their own deals directly with the rigs, in which case commentary on the legitimacy of their (legal, sustainable) doings might be off-target.

... At that time, a new agreement was negotiated with Aera Energy (who owned the rigs at the time), the USCG, the US Department of the Interior, and the local dive boat captains that allowed us access to the rigs.... So the agreement was that essentially we'd have access to the rigs and it would be stricly a looky-loo dive site. I know all this to be true because I was the one who negotiated with said entities on behalf of the diving community. Since that time, the rigs have changed ownership at least once (maybe twice), Aera's no longer involved...

---------- Post added June 24th, 2013 at 02:10 PM ----------

Disagree with you, fnfalman, that a license-holding diver taking scallops off a rig support column indicates any kind of "desperation" whatsoever. Furthermore, I would suggest it is a fine example of sustainable fishing in that there there are literally thousands of scallops on each rig, and in all the years I've seen divers take their limit, I've never seen a diminishing of scallop numbers...

...below 25 feet of depth that is. The rigs do indeed pay a company to scrub the columns clean to at least that depth (25 feet). All life, including anemones, muscles, scallops, garibaldis (and nests), brittle stars, etc is displaced. (We do see the column joints down deeper scrubbed as well, for obvious reasons.)

Billl

With all the money a diver spent on diving, if he or she were that desperate for scallops then take that money to the supermarket and get some. It's safer and less hassle.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Beginning in the 1970s there was a Gentlemen's Agreement not to take abalone along Palos Verdes. To this day they are all but gone from our reefs. There will always be those who feel that they can take all they want as long as it is not illegal.

 

[mathauck0814]

Scallopping on the oil rigs is cool from the Pac Star. It's not "exertion" to take them without taking the shell - on the contrary, dislodging a whole scallop shell and lifting it would be not only exertion but also destruction. Just cut the scallop out and place it in your catch bag. Seconds of effort. Scallop deeper where fewer divers dive (fewer of the cleaner resources bother to dive) the scallops are bigger and healthier there anyway.

I feel sort of sorry for people that feel that going to a grocery store for seafood is somehow a better option for the environment or the quality of the product procured than taking it by hand from the ocean oneself.

 

[dytis-sm]

Beginning in the 1970s there was a Gentlemen's Agreement not to take abalone along Palos Verdes. To this day they are all but gone from our reefs. There will always be those who feel that they can take all they want as long as it is not illegal.

Abalone hunting south of Monterey is illegal by Fish and Game regulations not a Gentleman's agreement...

 

[merxlin]

In my mind the scallop issue is a non-issue right up until the rig owners stop us from diving the rigs at all. They cannot enforce if divers hunt; it's not like you can really see if someone is taking them or brings up a bag of scallops if they are discrete. And do they want to have someone in place to monitor them? Probably not. So when the rig cleaners or whoever has the contract to harvest them complains it would be cheaper and easier to keep the dive boats away completely since the rig owners do not get any revenue from them. Just my 2 psi.

 

[red_instead]

It's probably worth noting that different rigs with different owner/operators probably have different rules and concerns about divers scalloping.

Just defer to your boat's captain/DM- it's their show on their boat, after all.