For the most awesome dive experience you'll ever have!

[H2Ocean]

Actually you CAN'T take 7 a day unless you have no other lobster in your possession (including your freezer). The limit is 7 in possession, not 7 a day.

Bill so glad you cleared that up. DFW last year said it was cool to give lobster away to 'friends' who may or may not have had licenses. One more interesting fact on the agency that governs our collected money for licenses. Do you have inside connections to get this type of info? Seriously you guys don't read the last post do you? Forgive me but it was already adressed! And the guy that's claiming how the ocean was and hopes it will be "ok" throughout his diving "career." CFW sold you out when they added hoop netting!! And the report card, it's indication lobsters are heading the same fate as abs did. So they gotta get their take. Cry to them, but you have to have more money than the paying hoopnetters. I can tell you places in Catalina where the abs reds or whites? Have made a sweet comback. Like the rest of the cycles we're just spectators, the pacific is in charge.

 

[fnfalman]

No such thing as an unfriendly great white encounter

I saw Jaws 1 through 4.

 

[H2Ocean]

it would be an honor then for you to join us on the dive opening lobster night. having seen jaws, we'll appoint you to bring the toasting wine.

 

[drbill]

Yes, it may be "cool" to give away lobster to friends. Personally, I think if someone is to use the resource they should earn it by getting it themselves.

The limit of 7 in possession should be common knowledge if one actually reads the regulations.

As for hoop nets, I despise them. Once season starts they will be set all along the boundary of the Casino Point Dive Park, which is an MPA whose outer boundary does not extend past the lines (unlike most MPAs where the boundaries go well out into deep water). I see the impact of the hoop netters every year as the age structure of the local lobby population skews toward the youngsters.

 

[red_instead]

DFW last year said it was cool to give lobster away to 'friends' who may or may not have had licenses ... Do you have inside connections to get this type of info?

That's very clearly legal as long as you are not dry-sacking. However, if you took 7 lobsters in a day, and gave them away, it's not like your daily possession limit resets.

The only exception to the daily possession limit that I recall is multi-day fishing trips, which require the multi-day charter to file an affidavit with the local DFW office prior to departure. But as I read the law, that would mean that once you got back you couldn't take any more lobster until your freezer was empty of lobster.

It's all in the regulation books.

 

[drbill]

Interesting. I've never heard about a multi-day exception. I stopped all hunting and fishing almost 40 years ago so I'll have to read the regs to verify that. My sources tell me that 7 in possession is the limit period. A multi-day trip should have the same maximum limit if what I've heard is correct.

 

[red_instead]

Interesting. I've never heard about a multi-day exception. I stopped all hunting and fishing almost 40 years ago so I'll have to read the regs to verify that. My sources tell me that 7 in possession is the limit period. A multi-day trip should have the same maximum limit if what I've heard is correct.

"Multi-day fishing trips are provided for under the authority of Section 27.15 of Title 14 of the California Code of Regulations (CCR). Up to three daily bag and possession limits of saltwater fin fish, lobster and rock scallops and up to two daily bag and possession limits of abalone are allowed for a person fishing during a multi-day trip in ocean waters from a boat whose owner or operator has filed a Declaration for Multi-Day Fishing Trip, as hereinafter provided. A Declaration for Multi-Day Fishing Trip shall be filed and used only in accordance with the provisions listed below."

Here's a link to the form if anybody is interested- generally filled out by the boat charter, etc.: Declaration for Multi-Day Fishing Trip

I mean, you can only eat so many lobster in one day, so it doesn't make a lot of sense to do a multi-day lobster trip if there isn't a mechanism for extending the limit. And as I recall, your daily take limit remains the same: if you get 3 one day, it doesn't mean that it's legal to take 11 the next.

 

[Keith.M]

Yes, that is the regs. I have only taken one multi day lobster trip, but it was on the Vision and this was exactly the case. It would have been legal to get off the boat with 21 lobsters. Provided that you had only caught 7 per day

 

[H2Ocean]

I haven't looked this year yet. The Declaration cost $5.00 for the boat to obtain. Over the phone, they'll mail you the file to print. As totally screwy as DFW regs are. 3 days on a boat a diver is going to want to add some serious Cholesterol loaded protein to his mac and chees, "I" recommend adding 3 huge bugs to one 35cent mac and cheese box. Here's how. In a bowl paper or micro safe, lay the tail of 1 of your 21 lobs your gonna get lobster count, sideways and pour just about 1/2 inch of water in the bowl. Mic it for 1.5 mins on each side, larger bugs add minimal time to. Mic the mac and schred the tail, or chunk it thick. Remember!!! You have 24 hours in which to figure those 3 bugs are going back to sea. So you then legally can get 25!! Just Sayin!! Hey guys have fun, as we always have suggested pay close attention to regs, they are tricky. And no matter how much you hear of demoic acid poisoning and or high cholesterol levels, and honorary be nice to lobster days, they are very nutritional, there's not been one diagnosed case of a human dying from eating lobster "thought to have been infected with the flagellates from red tide thing." Lobster are thriving extremely well along our reefs. If every legal lobster was taken on opening night, undersized bugs will then become legal some day very soon. IF anyone disagrees with this observation, I challenge all or anyone of you to join me on any night to look under rocky ledges...All you see is lobster eyes!! But your going to have to get into the water. Happy hunting. Don't die over them, and certainly enjoy a lobster dinner this season!! And be most respectful to those who oppose the hunting or taking/eating of lobster. Not only do they have the right to voice conservatism they also cut down on the daily report cards of "Bugs Taken!!" And keep posting those pictures! Thanks!

---------- Post added September 8th, 2014 at 06:38 PM ----------

Interesting. I've never heard about a multi-day exception. I stopped all hunting and fishing almost 40 years ago so I'll have to read the regs to verify that. My sources tell me that 7 in possession is the limit period. A multi-day trip should have the same maximum limit if what I've heard is correct.

Bill, also I remember you saying it was illegal to take lobster from the dive park at catalina, years ago. That was clearly not correct nor true. Only since the mpa are they now protected, in the park. There might have been moral or etiquette notions being a semi populated area with divers. It's kind of more interesting how the misconceptions of what's true and known facts and what's hoped for...by spreading inaccurate information. But don't feel alone, that myth of the dive park being an Illegal Take zone before MPA I've heard from other non hunting divers. Really what the Maximum Take for a multi trip and in possession counts shouldn't be a concern of yours, you don't buy the report cards do you? You don't hunt right? Some in this world only eat animals they kill themselves rather than a penned up farm raised in restricted crate conditions, steroid fed animals. Think about that, talk about conservation, the whole idea of just going to vons and buying a chicken to eat. Takes no real effort. But I'm sure all the ones so against lobster hunting here do not consume any animals period, or they'd kind of be well...ya know. And keep in mind all the animals killed in the process of organic gardening. Personally I think plants of all kinds are more of a consciousness than us mobile life forms.

---------- Post added September 8th, 2014 at 06:40 PM ----------

I'm not opposed to hunting nor non hunters, everybody is here for a good reason.

 

[red_instead]

You have 24 hours in which to figure those 3 bugs are going back to sea. So you then legally can get 25!! Just Sayin!!

I'm not certain what you're saying here, but to clarify, the regs are pretty clear: during the time period for a multi-day affidavit, you can take 7 bugs per day, and only 7 bugs per day.

The affidavit allows you to possess up to 21 bugs (one for each day covered in the multi-day trip: if you were only out for two days, you could only possess 14).

If you got on the boat with 3 bugs, they would count toward your possession limit, though if you ate them before you started hunting, not toward your daily take limit; you would probably want to eat them before the affidavit time period started running since it's not really clear whether you'd "tap out" your expanded possession limit by having bugs in possession at the start of the affidavit period but ate them prior to beginning hunting. You would almost certainly need to eat them before you started bug hunting, and probably before you got on the boat, just as a practical matter: if you're on the first day of your trip and pulled a limit, and CFW comes onboard and finds you with 7 live lobsters and lobster bits in the trash, good luck convincing them that you only had 7 in possession at a time, or only took 7 during a day.

Further, in addition to any unconsumed but processed bugs counting toward the possession limit, if you made mac and cheese with lobster and brought it on the boat, it would very conceivably count as possessing tailed lobster, which is a violation now due to reg changes. CFW's current interpretation of its regs re tailed lobster (or fish filets with skin removed, where applicable) is basically that you're allowed to tail the lobster in preparation for immediate consumption, which wardens basically take to mean "the pan should be hot." So lobster leftovers/premade lobster snacks count toward your possession limit, and premade lobster dishes, on a boat, could cause you other issues.

If you went on a 3 day trip with the multi-day affidavit, and maxed your limit at 21, and you took your bugs home and ate, say, 3, you'd still be over single day possession limit, but you'd be OK because of the affidavit paperwork. However, you don't get to "refill" your multi-day possession limit. You would technically have to finish 15 of your bugs before you would even be legally eligible to hunt and take a single new bug.

Like you said, complicated. But workable once you get the hang of it.

---------- Post added September 10th, 2014 at 05:13 PM ----------

Bill, also I remember you saying it was illegal to take lobster from the dive park at catalina, years ago.

I recall reading that it actually was illegal to take bugs within the dive park at Casino Point prior to its MPA status, as the result of a City of Avalon ordinance, rather than state designation as an MPA, since I think Casino Point falls under Avalon's jurisdiction through the regulation of its harbor. Bill would probably know more about that history than, frankly, any one of us here.

Point is, there may be more than one level of government to look to, though it would've probably been a different citation for taking bugs in Casino Point prior to it being an MPA (does raise some interesting issues re Avalon's authority to regulate, though).