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florida spiny lobster

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biscuit7:
As far as I know, the limit is 6 per person or 24 per boat, whichever is less. I'm not sure I see the issue for recreational lobstering with this one.

Rachel
I miss read your letter the first time and I can't spell. So lets try this again The original rule stated 6per person or 24per vessel which ever was greater. In other words 2 people on the boat could bring in 24lob while 6 people could bring in 36lob. This was changed 2 years ago to 6lob per person.Meaning now my friend and his spouse can only bring back 12lob per day if they are the only ones on board.
 
Right. I just can't see why anyone would need more than 6 per day. I can only eat about 2 myself which is why I only ever get 2 unless I'm feeding someone else then I'll take 4, but I can go get as needed for dinner that night.

Rachel
 
biscuit7:
Right. I just can't see why anyone would need more than 6 per day. I can only eat about 2 myself which is why I only ever get 2 unless I'm feeding someone else then I'll take 4, but I can go get as needed for dinner that night.

Rachel

We don't all have the luxury of living in the Florida Keys where we can go out and catch what we need every day. Some of us travel great distances to enjoy what you can enjoy every day. We spend as little as two or three days to several months. Most of us would like to have some return on our investment through out the year. Lobster keep very well in our freezers and every time we sit down to a wonderful Florida lobster dinner we are reminded of our wonderful trip to the keys paradise, making us look forward to our next years trip. Your tourist industry should be thankful for that. The T- shirts just don't do the same thing as a lobster dinner cooked at home shared with our familys and friends. I suggested the 100tag per season limit per lobster licence holder with no daily bag limit to help conserve fuel and for those visitors that are unable to stay for long visits. This may also cut down on the overloading of boats.
 
The way I see all this and I have been reading every thing for the past few days. The OUTLAW commercial Divers are ruining it for the good people of the great state of Florida. So if the way to stop them is to outlaw commercial diving for lobster then sorry to all you honest Commercial lobster Divers. You could have done a better job policing your peers!!!! As for the recreational Divers being treated fairly there are no commercial Deer or Alligator hunters in Florida. Yet you can go to the store and buy it Just like Lobster. I personally think that commercial fishing and lobstering has its place but not at the expense of the honest hard working citizens of the state that like to dive, fish and lobster for the fun and enjoyment of the family time that they get to spend together. I have been diving with my family in the keys for a number of years and have a lot of other friends and fellow divers that have been doing the same. It is a tradition and family experiance that we all hope to be able to pass down to our childern and grandchildren

I am onboard
 
AT last there are some other people out their that understand. Great letter. Some very good points.
 
I also would like to be onboard. I was once a commercial diver, my license was taken away because i did not sell my catch and could not gualify in order to keep it. It was then replaced with a Recreational Diver License (50 per day). Now that is being taken away at the rate of five per year until it is gone. The recreational limit has gone from 6 per person or 24 per boat (whichever is greater) to 6 per person. Looks like to me the Commercial industry and their powerful lobbying is going to take every thing away if WE don't get together and try and stop them.
Sit back and do nothing but don't complain when we have nothing.
 
I do most of my diving in the Gulf from the Bull Frog Banks west toward Key West. The bottom is littered with ILLEGAL STRUCTURES (manmade habitats) 26 or 28 miles of these structures. I have dove on several of these and they will be absolutely loaded with lobster. My crew and I refuse to take anything from these structures.It looks like the old days in the ledges and coral heads before the ILLEGAL STRUCTURES stopped the lobster from coming in.

Sit back ,do nothing ,but don't cry.
 
welcome aboard great letter, thanks for joining with us. You can break one stick at a time but it will take a lot of pressure to break a bundle.
 
I guess I'll chime in......hesitantly...

I am a commercial lobster/ marine life diver. I don't live in the keys, and have never seen a "castilla". I work hard for my money, and collect fish/lobster in an ethical manner. I don't see a problem with that. There are 1.4 million trap tags out there, scattered all over the seagrasses and reefs, you tell me who's doing the damage.

As for treating our fisheries like the Bahamas, if that means locals do whatever they want, fish trapping still exists, permits for Korean fishing boats issued, and hardly enforcing the few laws they have........you gotta be crazy. The only reason they have alot of fish over there is that they have thousands of square miles of reef compared to our strip of reef from shore out a few miles here on the east coast.

Why are our lobster numbers dwindling......is it because commercial divers take 'em from structures....or because mini-season wipes them out.....or beacuse trappers don't have a limit???? No, It's because all of our lobster come from lavea in florida bay and similar sanctuaries, and those larvea came form feeder reefs throughout the gulf of mexico, central and south America, and all of the Carribean. Lobster spend the first year of life floating around in the currents. Our shortage of bugs is a direct result of the lack of protection in other countries....unfortunately, there is little we can do about it except watch the divers in Belize and Ecuador deplete their own, and our lobster stocks.

Hope my rant shed some light for some of you.
 
100 bugs per person?? You must be crazy. I'm sure you've already done the math and it would take over 2 weeks to get that number of lobster at current limits. Can you even begin to imagine mini-season with a 100 per person season limit???

Take the 2 weeks, man. Lobstering is for fun is... well... fun. It's a way to look at the reef from a different perspective. You're on vacation, lighten up!

Rachel
 
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