“At least I make an honest living”

“At least I make an honest living”

        Understand now, when I first started diving for sea urchins the spiny shellfish were considered pests, which they were, since the sea otters were hunted out of these waters in the last century. That left the sea urchins, with no other natural predator to keep them from over running the reefs and eating the precious kelp. The kelp, of course being valuable for maintaining the marine ecosystem in the Southern California waters. The different “experiments the Fish and Games scientists came up with to eradicate the sea urchins were in a word ridiculous. Everything from poisoning, to a bounty for sport divers to get there jollies smashing them with hammers.

        So enter the sea urchin fishery. All anyone needed was a 45 dollar commercial fishing license, and you could pick all the sea urchins you wanted. Well that changed when the fishery stabilized.   The sea urchin fishery represented the number 1 seafood export from California for many years. So of course it was decided that the fishery needed to be “managed” Without boring myself with all the details, they created regulations size limits and so on. I can tell you that was the last thing a Fish and Game Warden wanted to do was measure a 5000 pound load of Sea Urchins trying to find enough short size urchins to ruin the day week and maybe even month and career of the diver. At first they did not enforce the size limit much, until some divers shot ourselves in the foot by calling the fish cops on each other. .........' Hey such and such was over at the spot I worked for a week and he came out of there with a full load, and I know I picked every legal size urchin there' that kinda thing. Well you can kinda say the Fish and Game “put the hammer down” I can tell you though, when they were through, nobody wanted to call the cops on anyone again. They were on a mission to find 30 shorts on any boat they checked, one way or another. I would watch them with there measuring device, chip off shell just to make the measuring device fit over an urchin, if they thought they were not going to get their 30. That was 30 shorts allowed per load. No matter if you had 3000 pounds or 500 pounds. It seems a percentage of your load could be short would be more fair, but not to them because that would mean they would have to measure every urchin on loads that were close. Hell they could find 30 of the top of any load the way they measured them.

        For many years standard practice would allow a choice for divers during the off loading process. Divers could go home immediately while the tender off loaded. Some boats would rotate that privilege, and some divers never did, preferring to witness the weight of their individual catch. Maybe they had trust issues, maybe even justified, but that practice ran afoul of the Fish And Game, because if they came on scene after the owners of the catch had already departed, and there was a violation, the diver in question would be absent from the scene to accept the citation. It took them sometime before they actually required by law for the diver to maintain proximity to his catch for the day until such time as the Fish and Game was absent, or they excused him after the catch was accounted for.

         Well the occasion where I went home early, shortly after I arrived to the Manchester KOA, just about 5 miles north of Pt, Arena. The tender off the Fuji 3 the vessel I was currently working, arrived with a message that I have to return and claim my catch. I was reluctant at first because I was sure I was OK, as I was not one of those, so determined to make weight, I would start picking small urchins, in fact I hated picking small urchins. So I finally returned to find a box of urchins that was supposedly mine next to a truck with forklifts and tractor trailers full of urchins going back and forth with nobody watching them at all. If this was evidence, it was highly suspect, That box of urchins could have been tampered with as sat there for hours. Since my father was a special agent with the DEA for 29 years, I had a little experience about how evidence is suppose to be handled in a criminal investigation. The evidence in my case was not handled in any where close to standard, in fact the warden was derelict in his duty to leave evidence so conspicuously out in the open to where anybody could have tampered with it.

     I was cited despite my objections, I had 38 shorts in a 2000 pound day, I had a great day and it would be for nothing since they seized the load and sold it so they could add to there coffers. Meanwhile Mr 500 pounds had 23 shorts, a much higher percentage of shorts, but I was the bad guy.

        So fast forward to my court date, which took place in the Pt Arena high school gym I believe, with just a couple tables and chairs. I sat right across from the judge. When it was my turn to speak I told him that the evidence had been sitting out in the public for hours with no security, and there is no way could they attach those urchins to me under those conditions legally or otherwise. He was a little frustrated with me, I assume because he wanted the calendar to move a long, so he could get the hell out of there. He then gave me the biggest bullshit lie, and it would come back to haunt me that I bought it, he was a judge after all. He said if I plead guilty, my load would stay forfeit, but he would not impose the fine of $400, which was normally imposed in these cases, most important of all he promised there would be no further action taken on this case. He was wrong about that.

        So off I went. The summer was over, so it was about time to head back down south. The winters in Northern Ca did not allow for much work, so I ended up working the Amy Lynn, for that winter. Deep 100 ft diving at San Nicolas for giant size urchins, they filled the bag so fast. I loved it. The Amy Lynn was a 38 ft Radon equipped with twin hydraulic booms, that were nice for pulling a diver in and loading the urchins, but the way they were situated if the boat took a list it was natural to grab for the spool on the boom, and one day I watched a tender cut off his finger doing that. Steve Noah found the finger and he Jerry and I, crowded into his Dodge Ram dually, and raced up to Santa Rosa in the hope they could do something with it.  Alas it was not to be. The poor tender would always have a reminder of that trip.
    At any rate,  It was rolling around to that time a year and I was not about wait around and hope the boat I was on was going to migrate north where the money was, in the summer anyway. So I planned to head north in my truck as soon as we got in from San Nicolas, make a pit stop in Buelton and head up that night, and that's what I did. A week or so later, I called up Jerry asking about the check, he told me that the Fish and Game had seized my load. I was apoplectic, the urchins were giant so they were not short. I called the Fish and Game as Jerry directed , and when I called them after a nightmare, trying to get to the right warden they said since I was not on scene to claim my load, my load was seized. Then they said they needed to see my permit, physically see it. No fax or copy. Now this was before there was a law requiring  the diver to stay with his load during the unloading process. I also explained to them why I was in a hurry, because I had a long drive ahead of me. After several attempts to collect my compensation for my lawful urchins they came up with a accusation that sources indicate that I was diving with someones elses permit. I was aghast at the ignorance and stupidity. I retorted “Why would I be diving on someone else s permit when I have a perfectly good one? They should know that because the Fish and Game data base would confirm that I had a permit.

       So with no citation and no due process, I was the victim of theft of my load of Sea Urchins, amounting to about $600. Right around this time I became aware of a Fish and Game warden Officer , he was running around Pt Arena like a chicken with her head cut off. He was measuring urchins like a mad man, he was searching as if his life depended on it. He was even running divers background checks, looking for unpaid traffic tickets. That was unprecedented .So he started in on ours and after a minute I said something like what is wrong with you? Why are treating us like criminals. He even called his wife and told her he would be late for dinner. He said to me “at least I make an honest living” I was stunned. I said something to the effect that Jesus was a fisherman. Well true to form, he ran my background check and he discovered a citation that I did not show up in court. He was so happy, because it was his intention to drive me all the way to Fort Bragg and turn me in to the Jail for a warrant for driving without a license. Fort Bragg is 50 miles on a windy, steep skinny road. I was not very cordial to him, on the ride up and I was yelling in his ear at one point' Then to top it off he could not even find the jail. I was laughing at him with all the Gusto I possessed. When he checked me in, the jailers were snickering at him for going thru all that effort for a minor traffic violation. In fact, they only kept me for an hour then let me out and I was back in Pt. Arena before him. When I presented my permit to him, I asked if now could I get the money for the load they illegally seized in Oxnard, after his negative response I called Oxnard to no avail. It was at that point I realized that some of these Fish and Game officers really dislike us, and they will go thru hell and high water to make our lives miserable. 
      So off I go on my merry way, incidentally when I did show up for court this time, I was sentenced to a weekend in the Mendocino county Jail in Ukiah.  A windy mountain 25 mile road away. When I showed up the jail turned me away said they had no record of my sentence.  Meanwhile stranded in Ukiah all night till the buses start running. so off I go renewed my permit that year, bounced around a few boats, until a year or so later. A Fish and Game warden shows up on my door and hands me paperwork indicating that I was in violation for harvesting sea urchins without a permit.  I was stunned until I dug a little deeper and lo and behold it was revealed that after my sketchy conviction for undersized urchins my case was referred to the State fish and Game Commission which was a new entity I had never heard of. They had sent me a certified letter indicating their intention to suspend my permit for 6 months, in the light of the previous conviction, which I only plead guilty to because the judge promised me, there would be no further action, if I did so.  I never received the letter, and the Fish and Game had no receipt signed or otherwise that I had received such a letter. The Fish and Game Commission decided to proceed anyway regardless, and did indeed suspend my permit for 6 months. Of course they did not even bother with a notification letter this time, because that would show I was not notified, when they did not get a signed receipt. Therefore all the urchins I landed during that period were in violation.  I may ask why even bother with the first certified letter, if a response was not necessary for the Commission to proceed.  So I have these violations hanging over my head that were not adjudicated..no citations or convictions.
         Now I admit this last episode, was a stupid thing to do, not so much because of the morality or the irresponsibility for not foreseeing this problem, but because I should have known Fish and Game wardens with urchin divers in their sights would do exactly what it would take to catch a few scofflaws, during the permit renewal window. That year it stormed for weeks before the renewal date, and I just could not come up with the $420 for the permit.  So I did what any resourceful broke diver would have done.  As soon as the weather cleared and much of the fleet was creeping out,  I thought I could sneak a trip in pay for my permit and none would be the wiser.  Not to be, the F and G vessel Marlin was way out at San Miguel, just drooling, in the hope that some dumb ass like me would be doing, what I was doing.  Sure enough, they even terminated our voyage and escorted the Office to SB, much to Lukes consternation. So goodbye 2 days of work. I managed to come up with the permit money  and just hoped for the best when.  I got a call from my father in Washington State, somehow my mail was diverted there, when I spent the previous summer in Seattle.  The F and G commission informed me that my permit was at risk of a 5 year suspension...unless I attended there meeting at Pt Reyes Station.
       I was in complete panic mode.  I had not been employed , other than sea urchin diving for 20 years. The thought of working a 9 to 5 terrified me. My whole identity was based on diving. I would be fascinated with Jacque Cousteau and 20,000 leagues under the sea as a child and dreamt of being a professional diver, and I realized that dream, after ridicule and obstacle after obstacle presented itself, I exercised, fortitude, determination stubbornness, until my perseverance paid off. Well it was clear that I would have to reach back and use all of those qualities to get me through this one.