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Night crawlers
The water is dark and spooky. The bugs are creepy and mean. It's the favorite
night of the year for local divers.
by Dan Bialek
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Chad Thagard and Chris and Kimel Limon with dinner. Photo by Dan Bialek |
At the stroke of midnight last Friday, hundreds of divers equipped with dive lights and game bags slipped into the dark waters off South Bay beaches.
Lobster season had arrived.
Each year Dive N' Surf in Redondo Beach hosts its Lobster Mobster contest for the largest lobster caught on opening night. Divers have until 9 a.m. Saturday morning to weigh in their catches. But for most divers the bugs they catch are more than sufficient reward.
Among the local divers making the first lobster season dive of the new century was Chris Limon of Redondo Beach, a licensed underwater welder. Limon placed third with a 9.7 pound lobster in the Lobster Mobster contest a few years ago. He met his favorite dive partner at the annual Dive N' Surf tent sale. Her name was Kimel. They were married last March and dove together Friday night, along with long time friend Chad Thagard.
The three set out from King Harbor at 10 p.m. Friday aboard the Limon's appropriately "Tiburon,' an all business 25-foot ' Reinnell. Twenty minutes later they dropped anchor at their dive spot. The Limons had marked the secret spot on their GPS following a scouting dive earlier in the week.
"The best way to find a spot is to dive it and save the position in the computer before raising anchor," Chris said.
Another key piece of equipment Friday night was the lobster gauge. It resembles a U-shaped, metal ruler with a cord tied to the diver's wetsuit. Before placing lobsters in their game bags, divers measure their catch. A legal lobster is four inches from the head to the start of the tail. Divers caught with undersized lobsters are liable to fines of up to $500
"The best way to measure a bug when you're down there is to hook the gauge onto its back and press down. If the gauge doesn't make the eyes move, it's a keeper," Thagard said.
Besides the GPS, gauges, wetsuits, hoods, gloves, swim fins, masks, snorkels, diving lights, and tanks, the three were also equipped with breathing regulators, diving computers, and numerous other Scuba gizmos.
Their air would last only about 30 minutes on the 70-foot dives they were planning. The deeper the dive, the more the weight of the water compresses the air in the diver's lungs, and the quicker their Scuba tanks are exhausted.
On opening night, divers are not allowed to enter the water until one minute past midnight.
"Last year, Fish and Game had divers waiting underwater to catch guys who went in too early, and they caught a few," Thagard said.
The lobsters the divers were after weren't the kind seen shuffling their rubber-banded pinchers across the bottoms of aquariums in most seafood restaurants. Those are American lobsters (Homarus Americanus). They are found in the waters from South Carolina to Newfoundland.
The lobsters found off the California coast are spiny lobsters (Palinurus interruptus). Spiny lobsters are the clawless relatives of American lobsters. Although they do not grow as large, they can still reach up to 24-inches and more than 12-pounds. And although they lack meaty claws, spiny lobsters have plenty of defense mechanisms that make them difficult to catch.
"They have sharp spines on their backs, and under their tails. You've got to wear gloves when you grab these things or they'll cut you," Limon said.
Along with their pointy exoskeletons, spiny lobsters use their highly developed antennae to whip their prey and attackers. They can also swim quickly backwards, using their powerful tails to propel them away from danger.
"They're nocturnal. That's why we hunt lobsters at night. During the day they sleep and hang out in caves and crevices, which makes them harder to catch. At night they come out to socialize. It's easier to get them at the beginning of the season, but later on they get used to the lights and they use that tail of theirs to take off as soon as you hit them with the light," Thagard said.
Thagard was the first in the water. The Limons quickly followed, once Chris had fixed a problem with one of Kimel's flippers. They swam to the stern, and then followed the anchor line down to the bottom.
For the first few minutes, their flashlights lit up the water around the boat. But as they went deeper, the lights quickly faded.
Sharks are a concern to divers, but not as big a concern as people.
"I've seen sharks before, but it's not such a big deal. There are times when you feel that you are being watched, but that feeling goes away after a while. I knew a guy who got bumped twice while coming up his anchor line from a dive, but nothing that frightening happens often," Chris said.
"Boats on the surface are way more dangerous than what you'll find down there. We have to fly our diving flag when we have divers in the water or else we get fined. But that doesn't mean that other boats have to respect or pay attention to our flag. I've been buzzed a couple of times coming up from night dives. One time I almost caught a prop in the head," Chris said.
"It's also important to pay attention to air-time," he noted.
He admitted that sometimes he gets so wrapped up in diving that he forgets to look at his dive computer. Divers who run low on air may be tempted to rush to the surface, causing nitrogen bubbles to form in their blood. The result is a painful, and potentially fatal condition known as the 'bends."
Thagard was the first to return to the boat. The smile on his face was almost as big as the bulging game bag trailing behind him. Soon after, Chris and Kimel made their way to the "Tiburon's" dive step. Once onboard, the three divers emptied their dive bags onto the deck.
Chris had caught four lobsters, Chad three, and Kimel two. Thagard's looked the biggest. He estimated them to be around two pounds.
"Not too shabby for the first dive of the season," Chris said.
To demonstrate just how powerful their jaw-like mandibles were, Thagard placed his stainless steel lobster gauge in one the lobster's mouths. It clamped down on the metal so tightly that it was impossible to remove the gauge.
"Imagine what would happen if one of these latched onto one of your fingers," he said.
After their first dive, the crew prepared to head out to a nearby reef.
Unfortunately, a crew member from a nearby ship had left his $700 Never Lost device on the ocean floor connected to the "Tiburon's" anchor line. Chris threw on his air tank and dove down to retrieve the expensive piece of equipment for his fellow diver.
Once at the reef, Thagard was the first in the water, again.
"Chad's always the first in the water," Kimel said.
There was a bit of sarcasm in her voice. She and Chris laughed . Being the first one to get to the lobsters is important because it gives the diver the best chance of catching them unawares.
Thagard was the first back to the boat this time, as well. And once again, he was grinning. He had caught four more lobsters, raising his total for the night to seven. Seven is the legal limit allotted per diver over a twenty-four-hour period. Divers caught with more than seven lobsters are $500 fine for every over the limit lobster.
"Well, I'm happy. I've limited. You can't ask for more than that," he said.
A few moments later, Chris and Kimel returned together. Kimel had added another two lobsters to her tally, while Chris limited with another three.
"This isn't going to win the Lobster Mobster, but the smaller ones are better eating anyway," said Limon¸ holding up what looked to be a three-pounder.
And of course, there were the ones that got away. Chris claimed to have spotted at least three lobsters in the nine-pound range.
"They were just sitting there, but they were in too tough of a position to get at. I'm definitely coming back here soon," he said.
It was now close to 4 a.m., time to return to King Harbor.
"I did about 120 dives last year," Chris said. "This year it'll probably only be about 100. We eat a lot of the lobsters we catch at family gatherings and barbecues. Others, I give to friends, relatives, and the guys at the dive shop. We'll usually dive the season until we have enough frozen to last us the rest of the year."
As Chris docked the "Tiburon" in its slip, Fish and Game pulled up and asked permission to board. The crew, which was still ecstatic over its good fortune, welcomed the warden aboard. After checking all the lobsters he congratulated them on their catches and bade them farewell.
Over at Dive N' Surf. Chris' lobster weighed in at 2.5 pounds. Well, they always look bigger than they are. And although nobody on the "Tiburon" bagged a winner this year, they all left the shop with contest T-shirts and enough tall tales to last them until the next opening day of lobster season. ER