The game wardens watched the two fishermen for hours as they plucked one lobster after another from the traps and tossed them into their boat bobbing off the coast of Dana Point.
When confronted back at port, state Fish and Game agents said, the fishermen told them not to bother measuring their catch because the men knew the 100 or so lobsters they snared were too small.
For those who patrol the waters for lobster rustlers, Monday's bust was significant.
The seizure was one of the largest in a decade in Southern California and underscored the importance Fish and Game officials put on protecting the native crustacean, whose numbers dropped sharply in the 1970s when poaching was at a peak.
The case was also unusual because the skipper of the boat has a lobster permit, making him one of only 225 fishermen in the state granted the lifelong right to harvest legal-size lobsters. Over the years, as the lobster population slowly climbed, poachers--not the licensed lobster fishermen--have been viewed as the leading threat to the California spiny lobster.
"This was shocking," Fish and Game Lt. Chris Graff said. "Usually we get poachers who have no licenses of any kind, and here the guy's a commercial fisherman. If he wanted to plan any kind of career in fishing, he just shot himself in the foot."
If found guilty, Harvey Gonzalez, 22, of San Juan Capistrano and his crew member, Roddy Giacomini, 25, of Vista, could each face a maximum $110,000 fine, prison time, the loss of their commercial fishing and lobster permits and the seizure of their boat.
Neither could be reached for comment.
Authorities say the men were caught with 110 baby lobsters, all too small for legal harvesting.
The estimated value of the catch was roughly $1,000.
California lobsters sell for as much as $12 a pound.
Game wardens said the fishermen told them they did not intend to sell the lobsters on the black market.
Fish and Game agents periodically check restaurants and fish markets, making sure the lobsters are of a legal size.
More often, game wardens concentrate on commercial fishing vessels such as gill netters and hook-and-line fishermen, not those working the lobster pots.
But in this case, the wardens had received a tip and had had the two men under surveillance for days.
Wardens watched them from the deck of the Thresher, one of three Fish and Game boats patrolling the ocean from the Mexican border to Ventura to 200 miles offshore, Graff said.
