Re: Scuba Divers
I used to make it point being in the Keys (Big Pine) prior to the start of commercial bug season, 'till the trappers' lobbiest arranged to have the rules altered to screw the bug divers over, instituting a daily bag limit that restricted diver's harvest to just 300 lbs per day per license holder.
Prior to that we had a "best day" of 1500 lbs.
We really had to work for the dang things though, covered a lot of territory & some really sweet spots halfway to the mainland.
The kicker is that the conditions for diving the critters has to be during the peak of migration season where we'd get on the tail-end of a "walk" & start bagging the critters from the back of the line up to the front. That only lasts for a couple weeks.
Take just 1 bug out of the middle of the line & the rest behind him would wander off in all directions.
Jewfish would frequently follow & lurk behind us, sucking up the shorts 'till they couldn't hold any more.
It was a hilarious sight seeing a huge fish so full of bugs they couldn't just not only swallow an more, but couldn't even hold any more in their mouth!
That didn't stop 'em from trying though. Legs & antennae sticking out of the gills & mouth...
The price of bugs is so high now (selling for over $5/lb at the dock) that he's overcome some of his "cold water aversion" & has been getting into that 65 -70 degree water...
One year there was a HUGE manatee with her youngster hanging out in the canals where he kept his boat, dang thing was about as long as the boat & probably out weighed it!
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