Happy lobsters
Lobster season here in Florida is coming to an end again in just a couple of days.l, meaning that starting April 1st, recreational season will be closed, and no one will be allowed to harvest spiny lobsters in Florida waters until the season opens back up sometime in August. The 6th of August if I remember correctly.
So starting this Sunday, the spiny lobsters will now have a few months to relax and walk around while divers are in the water around them without having to worry about getting caught and eaten. It’s funny, because it really seems to happen this way. When lobster season is open, the lobsters hide well and are harder to find, and as soon the season closes, you’ll see them everywhere! It’s too funny. I love watching lobsters do their thing and don’t always feel the need to catch and eat them
Don’t get me wrong, I do eat lobster and I like to catch some every once in a while, but when do, I can’t get myself to kill them. So the few times that I actually catch lobster, I always need someone else to do the dirty work for me. Ha!
It’s only the spiny lobster that you’re not allowed to catch during these months that the spiny lobster season is closed. There are some other lobsters that have no seasons and therefore can be taken year round. And there’s no size limit on them either, they just can’t be with eggs. Females with eggs are illegal to harvest at all times (same for spiny lobster when season is open). Makes perfect sense, otherwise we’ll end up running out of lobsters altogether. The lobsters that you can harvest year round over here are the slipper lobster and the spotted ones. The slippers especially are very good in hiding so we don’t see too many of those, and the spotted ones are often so small that they’re not worth catching.
The weather hasn’t been very nice for diving most of this week so we’ve been using Kyalami for the intercostal cruises during the day as well until we can take her out diving again, and luckily that’ll be tomorrow. The seas will have calmed down enough, so to our divers will get one last chance to fill their freezers with fresh lobster before the season ends at the end of the day. Boat’s full and Capt. Tim is gonna put the divers on some secrets spots that he’s discovered on all of his years diving and driving in this area. Fingers crossed that all divers catch some dinner cause by midnight tomorrow, the lobsters that are still down there will be doing a little happy dance and probably all come out the next day to celebrate their survival. 😊
- Anne
