NEW Proposed Lobster Reg...

[Saba Slayer]

The DFW Marine Resources meeting was Monday at the Los Alamitos office.
I attended the meeting for CCA CAL along with Wayne Kotow our Executive Director and Big Joe Exline.
During one of the breaks in the meeting we had an opportunity to talk with warden Lt. Bob P. about one of the upcoming Lobster regulation changes for the 2017-18 season. This new proposed regulation involves the marking of your lobster floats with your “legibly written “Go number”.
The “Go number” is the number given to you when you buy a fishing license or any report cards or hunting license…it’s tied to your drivers license number so a license vendor can scan your drivers license and your “Go number” will come up.
Our concern was about having your “Go number” on all ten of your floats if you own the vessel and the gear….then loaning your gear to another hoopnetter or having them on your boat as a guest without their Go number on 5 of the 10 nets… Or being a kayak guide as I am and having 3 clients out with 5 nets each…now I’ve got 20 nets with my “Go number” only….or having guests or clients on a skiff without their “Go number” on their 5 nets.
Lt. Bob suggested that the guest or client use painters tape to add their name on the floats in addition to the gear owners “Go number”…he also had a small plastic tag that had a space for your “Go number” that he thought might be a useful way to temporarily attach a “Go number” with a zip-tie.
So…I guess we’ll be putting tape and tags on some of our floats…although the Lt. didn’t address the issue of having multiple guests on the boat with multiple “Go numbers”. I’ll put that question before the Lt. next time I see him.
All the new proposed regs should be available for review by the end of the week according to Mr. Sonke Mastrup