Lobster Mini Season

Watch out, it's time for Lobster Mini Season again. Craziness for lobsters takes over the entire island as locals and visitors take the first stab of the season at nabbing some lobsters. Hotels in Key West fill up, the city swells from its core of about 20,000 to a temporary whopping 40,000 and everybody brings a boat! It's like bumper cars out in Garrison Bight, only it's bumper boats. Divers beware, because in their excitement to get to the next rock and get a lobster or two or six, crazed boaters seem to forget normal safe boating practice. They drive too fast and too close to dive flags. It's a zoo out there!

Just to be clear, the lobsters we have in the Florida Keys are not the same as the ones from Maine. Our lobsters don't have the same giant meaty claw as the ones from up north. We call 'em the Florida spiny lobster and some call them bugs. The real spiny lobster season starts August 6 and goes until the end of March. The mini season is just two days and it's for non-commercial lobster divers only. During the regular season the big guys put out traps with bait for the lobsters. The mini season is for divers only. Scuba or freediving only. There is no such thing as recreationally trapping lobsters.

Lobster Mini-Season in the Florida Keys used to be on the weekend. So many people took to the waters on these days and basically mauled the lobster population that the season was moved to mid-week. Fewer people showed up but it's still a mob scene. They also made the limit only 6 lobsters per person per day in the Keys, while it's 12 in the rest of Florida. You also can't dive for lobster at night in the Florida Keys. The event gets some divers so excited they just can't wait and every year Marine enforcement officers catch people getting lobsters early, before the season.

How to Catch a Lobster

First of all, there are three kinds of spots where lobster like to hang out.

1. The Reef


2. Rock patches


3. Ledges

The reef has lots of nooks underneath full of lobster, and it's easy to find so it's the most obvious place to get them. Rock patches are harder to locate since they can be anywhere and if you're not from Key West you won't have any clue where to find a good lobster rock that's not right on the reef. A ledge means anywhere like the edge of a field of sea grass, where it changes to sand. Sometimes there's a ledge under the sea grass bed, with lobster inside. Look for color changes in the shallow water where a ledge might exist next to a sand patch. Staking out your own spots is the best way to go but not everyone has this luxury.

If you're snorkeling for lobster, diving skills are a must. You have to be able to dive down to the bottom and see what's under a rock or a ledge. You also have to be able to stay underwater for a while so you have time to coax the lobster out and get him in your net.