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AfterDark
Contributor
I think that's great and a long time in coming! The anti-diver atmosphere in Rockport was there in the 1980's when I started diving there. In the 1990's the LEOs USCG and game wardens were harassing the heck out of us asking if we had lobsters. The USCG wanted to board our inflatable, this was barely a 4 person raft with an attached transom to support a small motor. We just had room for us and our gear and no more. My buddy the owner told them they could if we could board their boat while they did it, citing the overloading with a 5th person. They declined and searched the raft from their inflatable for lobsters we didn't have. We were questioned and searched no less than 5 times during a 10 hour diving day! The last time we left the raft and our gear at the dock in the care of a game warden while we got some food. He could have put a ton of lobsters in the raft for all we knew or cared at that point. It was the last time I would dive Rockport until 2009 when I did Cathedral Rocks for the last time.
TuckerIdaho
Contributor
Because people were poaching lobsters out of traps.
AfterDark
Contributor
That's what I've heard from there for the past 30+ years. I never saw anyone do it, and I'll bet some will say it's still going on today. I call BS on it. I've heard it here in RI too, more BS. Just last week @Bubblesong posted about some oyster fishermen worried if people started diving near his traps they would raid the traps. Nobody has even dived there yet but the go to is always divers stealing from fishermen!
Proof, how often are divers caught? If it's some kind of common occurrence, people and more than a few would getting caught.
I'd like to know how many arrests for stealing from lobster pots by divers there has been in the Cape Ann area in the last 40 years.
TuckerIdaho
Contributor
Traps get raided. People have been caught. Feel free the next time you see an EP to ask them about it. There's a million ways to rig your traps so you can tell if someone messed with them, and plenty of people actively do so.
Is it divers or other fisherman doing it is the question?
I can't say divers never do it, I can say I've never witnessed a diver do it.
Scuba-74
Contributor
I haven't seen divers raid traps (you'd have to be right next to it to see it). I have seen poachers though. No numbers on tanks, no flag, and clearly undersized lobsters in the bag.
AfterDark
Contributor
Never say never I'm sure there are unscrupulous divers that steal from traps, however it is not an underwater crime wave either. The lobstermen would have better results by enlisting help from divers to catch poachers of any variety. Poachers hurt the lobster population which is not good not honest lobstermen or honest lobster divers.
I've seen traps rigged to hurt in the bad old days, blasting caps, razor blades in the line, a lobsterman trying to run me down with his boat because in his twisted mind I was stealing from his traps. I didn't even have a catch bag that day. People project the worst onto other people especially those people they can't see around their property, divers swimming near their pots. IMO they overfished for years, now they blame divers for lobsters they don't catch.
I've seen traps rigged to hurt in the bad old days, blasting caps, razor blades in the line, a lobsterman trying to run me down with his boat because in his twisted mind I was stealing from his traps. I didn't even have a catch bag that day. People project the worst onto other people especially those people they can't see around their property, divers swimming near their pots. IMO they overfished for years, now they blame divers for lobsters they don't catch.
TuckerIdaho
Contributor
First off, nobody claimed there to be a "crime wave". And don't worry, EP and lobstermen can police on their own without any other group's help.
Rigging lines to hurt people wasn't just in "the bad old days", it's still done. Boats are sunk Coast Guard investigates lobster boat sinking | National Fisherman, people are shot Police: Maine lobster turf war led to shooting, lots of suspicion and finger pointing all around.
And no, nobody is blaming divers for not catching lobsters. That lies exclusively with other lobstermen setting ontop of each other, but if you can introduce me to someone who believes divers are at fault, by all means, I need a good laugh. Now traps not latched how you left them and the lines clearly not hauled on traps near popular diving spots, it's not hard to figure out what happened.
But back to the point, divers got a lot of heat back in the 90s due to raiding traps
Rigging lines to hurt people wasn't just in "the bad old days", it's still done. Boats are sunk Coast Guard investigates lobster boat sinking | National Fisherman, people are shot Police: Maine lobster turf war led to shooting, lots of suspicion and finger pointing all around.
And no, nobody is blaming divers for not catching lobsters. That lies exclusively with other lobstermen setting ontop of each other, but if you can introduce me to someone who believes divers are at fault, by all means, I need a good laugh. Now traps not latched how you left them and the lines clearly not hauled on traps near popular diving spots, it's not hard to figure out what happened.
But back to the point, divers got a lot of heat back in the 90s due to raiding traps
OTF
Coney Island Whitefish Biologist
Why would anyone even bother? I see more lobsters out of traps than in them.
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