 The Highly-Prized Spiny Lobster
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July 31, 2003 — Tens of thousands of divers hit the Florida waters this week to search cracks and crevices for "bugs," as lobsters are lovingly known by local aficionados.
A two-day mini-season, which ends Thursday, gives recreational divers a chance to grab a bagful of crustaceans before the commercial lobster season gets underway in August.
It is also a chaotic frenzy as boats and excited divers crowd the waters, competing for a chance to go after the prized delicacies, which have been given four months to multiply.
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"We end up having lots of cases of missing divers," said Danielle Dmarino of the U.S. Coast Guard in Miami.
"They lose track of time, and of where they are," she said. "Normally they end up being rescued."
But in past seasons, several divers never made it back alive.
Many of the divers have not gone underwater since the previous mini-season, and their skills may be rusty, according to rescuers.
Law enforcement officials are also out on the water full force to ensure daily bag limits of six to 12 legal-size lobsters are respected and do not include egg-bearing females.
Every now and then officials will board a dive boat to check the catch. One oft-recounted incident has an over-enthusiastic bug fan trying to hide his over-the-limit crustaceans in his neoprene suit, only to find out where the spiny lobster got its name.
Spiny lobsters do not have claws, but have numerous horn-like spines.
The mini-season is a major boon to tourism, particularly in the Florida Keys, a chain of southern Florida islands linked by a series of bridges and known for their spectacular coral reefs. More than 30,000 people are expected to take part in this year's bug hunt in the Keys alone.
But some residents strongly object to what critics have called "two days of rape and pillage."
A local paper, the Keynoter, bemoaned "the tourists who plunder lobster habitat around seawalls and docks, clog roads and waterways, and take more than the allotted six lobsters a day."
Over the years, "a small contingent of jerks has fueled a lot of local animosity," the online Keynews.com daily said in an editorial Wednesday.
"One cretin with a squeeze bottle of bleach can obliterate coral that will not grow back for a decade or more," it said in reference to the illegal use of chlorine bleach to remove the eggs from females.
Authorities have warned that divers must carry a measuring device to ensure the bugs are of legal size, 7.6 centimeters (three inches) on the carapace.
The lobsters must be caught by hand, and divers usually use a "tickle stick" to coax the bugs out of their holes and into the net.
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