Treasure Hunting For Lobsters By David Cowley At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Lobster hunting is becoming a favorite pastimes for many divers. These tasty crustaceans, also known as bugs to divers, are delicious. But in order to capture a lobster you must first find them. Lobsters need places to hide from other predators so prefer corral reefs, rocky area, old shipwrecks and man made areas where there are plenty of holes to hide in.

Lobsters are nocturnal feeders and they rarely venture far from their hole during the daylight hours. You will find them sitting on there front porch of there chosen home with just there antennea sticking and there back end inside the hole. Then threatened they will simply scoot back into there homes and then push down with there legs and brace there backs against the surface of the hole. This defensive action, also known as locking-up, makes it very difficult to pry the little buggers out.

While I have heard of people snorkeling or free diving during the day, most lobster hunting is done at night with scuba tanks. Hunting for these elusive crustaceans in their natural environment has become a sport and after you have a little experience under your belt you may want to enter some of the contests available to the hunters. Prizes are given for the first lobster found, the largest one, the most found and anything else the promoter of the event can think of.

The first thing the new treasure hunter will need to accomplish is to become scuba certified. Follow the PADI rules set down for scuba divers and please use common sense. The PADI rules state that you always surface with 500 psi of air left in your tanks. It does NOT say surface with 500 psi of air left in your tanks unless you are lobster hunting.

The most common PADI rule violated is to always dive with a buddy. You may start with a buddy in the water but when both of you are chasing after a fast moving lobster you will become quickly separated and very rarely will two divers make the effort needed to find each other again.

Gloves.

Next you will need a pair of good quality gloves. The claws of the lobsters are a great defense and if the bug should get a hold of you with them they can cut right through the cheep gloves and can give you a nasty cut. It has been said that the larger lobsters can crush a coke bottle with his claws and they bite as well. Not all lobsters have claws, such as the spinney lobster, but they make up for them with the spines on the underside of the tail, hence the name. Another hazard of night hunting is digging broken sea urchin spines out of your hands when you do not have a pair of good quality of gloves.

Underwater Light.

The more powerful the better. The wider the beam of light the easer to spot the bugs wandering around. Do not shine the light directly at the lobster until you are ready to make your final darting run at him. The light will blind him for a second or so just like a dear in automobile headlights. When he freezes you may just have enough extra time to make the capture.

The capture.

If the lobster is out in the open, do not try to grab them, just pin them to the bottom of ocean floor with your hand. Watch out for sea urchins, this is why most night divers will be digging sea urchin spines out of there hands after the dive is over.

If you discover a lobster sitting oh his home porch grab him by his head just below the antennae. If you grab him by the antennae they will just break off. Once the capture has been made point his tail at your capture bag and just let go. He will swim tail first right into the bag.

If you have missed your first grasp at him all is not lost. He will wedge himself into his crevice with the locking up maneuver. Grab him by the head and give him a good shake. If you are able to throw off his equilibrium he slide right out.

Size Limit

All divers are required to have a lobster gage with them at all times. It is used to determine if your catch is of legal size limit. If you do not have a gage with you the Coast Guard will give you a heavy fine.

Happy Treasure Hunting.

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