California Spiny Lobster Season for Scuba Divers!

 

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Simon C.

West Los Angeles, CA

Woohooooo!  I'm going scuba diving for lobsters off of my secret Malibu beach site tomorrow night for the first time this season!  The CA spiny lobster season opened Sept. 29, 2007, and continues to March 19, 2008.

If you're not familiar, CA spiny lobsters are commonly refered to as "bugs" in that they don't have the big ol' front claws that Atlantic lobsters do.  CA spiny lobsters are similar to Australian lobsters, which are also bugs, and tend to have denser, sweeter meat than their Atlantic counterparts.  Yummerific!

To catch the little buggers with scuba gear, no nets are allowed.  Instead, you have to catch them BY HAND.  Since they don't have claws, the spiny lobsters' primary defense mechanism is to whip its tail forward so that it shoots backward like a little armored missile.  Along each joint of its tail are sharp little spines, which can shred your skin like tissue paper, so divers typically wear leather or kevlar/neoprene gloves to grab 'em with.  Although it's legal to catch them during the day, bugs usually only come out at night in any quantity, so we dive with huge HID flashlights that have measurement calipers mounted to the front.

The first time I tried to catch one, we were in about 30 ft of water, with my buddy hovering right over my left shoulder.  The lobster I was trying to catch was HUGE, with a body approaching 2 ft in length and 5 inches in width.  Feeling a bit cocky that my first lobster was going to be such a monster, I had it all thought out in my head:  

1.  gingerly grab/caress/fondle it so as not to damage my trophy;
2.  hold it up to show my buddy to gloat;
3.  measure it with my calipers to gloat even more because it's so huge;
4.  and then deposit said trophy into my bag to bring back to cook over a fabulous bonfire on the beach with the rest of our landlubber friends.

That was the plan, anyway...

What actually happened was that the minute I gingerly touched the thing, it SCREAMED underwater!  No, I'm not being figurative.  The thing SCREAMED an ear-splitting, high-pitched, mind-numbing, heart-stopping screech (similar to that one Daryl Hannah did in "Splash," except more panicky) and then ROCKETED backwards over my shoulder square into my buddy's face, knocking off his mask and then out of our lives forever.  Lobsters don't get to be that big by being stupid or easy to catch, so it was fair fight.  

Moby Bug 1:  SiMonster 0.

Both my buddy and I freaked out and spent the next few minutes trying to control our breathing underwater.  Suffice it to say that an air tank that should have lasted well over an hour only lasted about 20 minutes that day, and the two pitiful little lobsters that I did catch I pinned and wrestled like they were killer whales.  

The daily limit per diver is 7 lobsters, but I've never come close.  Some of my buddies, however, have some sort of magical bug radar, because they usually catch their fill and fully stock their freezers for months to follow.

Still, it was an amazing sense of satisfaction to grill those little guys up on the beach with some fresh uni sushi (uni are everywhere off of Malibu) and serve with some nice oaky, buttery chardonnay, steamed vegies, and an herbed rice pilaf.

All together now...yummerific!

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