Prop injury - Day 1 of Florida's Mini Lobster Season

[sheeper]

mini-season i'm always working on one of our dive boats. i would never go out on a private boat simply because of the unruly boat traffic. the dive boat captains will intercept crazed boaters and run 'em off.
that said, i was surprised on Thursday along Palm Beach. We saw relatively few boats out. And other than a ripping current, conditions were pretty good (and all our customers came back with prizes!).

 

[BlueTrin]

We made the mistake of heading down through the keys in 2019 during mini season... I was trying to figure out why there was sooooooo many boats all over the place. Never have I ever seen more dive flags. I honestly just didn't know.. traffic was backed up for miles at a crawl. Lesson learned.

I do love a good lobster though.. not crazy about the play toys you Southerners catch. No claws? Where's the fun in that? and you get to use a stick? Come on, lol. Maybe I just haven't eaten the right one?

How do you catch one with claws? I am too scared to try even when I see juicy ones

 

[Ana]

mini-season i'm always working on one of our dive boats. i would never go out on a private boat simply because of the unruly boat traffic. the dive boat captains will intercept crazed boaters and run 'em off.
that said, i was surprised on Thursday along Palm Beach. We saw relatively few boats out. And other than a ripping current, conditions were pretty good (and all our customers came back with prizes!).

I'd modify your statement by saying:

I would never go on a private boat that's not used to the S.Florida boat traffic.

Any vessel going fast bearing on my husband's flag while I'm operating the boat, will be intercepted with distance to spare... I'm paying attention, so there's no reason to end up with a built-in Parker smashed into their vessel, but it will be their choice. I figure my chances are better if i know what's happening, instead of my husband at depth, oblivious of what could be happening topside. And i know my husband has the same attitude about any vessel with a bearing to my flag.
We carry a huge flag on the boat and keep close distance to the float/flag assembly from the person diving. You can't help a boat on auto-pilot ... Nothing is risk free, hopefully the horn will help or at least the revving of the engines will give a heads up to the diver of the fvckery. Either be ready to let the flag go, or if doing the safety stop go back down some.

I believe that is the attitude of the locals that use their boats for diving regular, it has to be in this traffic, some days t is like wet I-95 . Now I realize there's a HUGE amount of boaters that go out of a marina to only ride the intracoastal up and down and wouldn't dare to get their toes wet. Those are the boaters we try to keep at a distance.

Boaters just as divers are a diverse group. There's just not a wide enough brush to paint then with one statement.
I have seen Dive Boat Captains sit on their behinds, while their divers drift and drift far enough that they couldn't protect them if any boater was to go over their flags.

The one size fits all usually doesn't fit anyone very well.