A clawed caper at the Santa Monica Pier went awry despite 'sophisticated' attempts by suspects to get away with poaching roughly three dozen spiny lobsters, authorities said.
California wildlife officers seized 34 lobsters from would-be poachers in Santa Monica and returned the crustaceans back to the ocean. A clawed caper at the Santa Monica Pier went awry despite “sophisticated” attempts by suspects to get away with poaching roughly three dozen spiny lobsters, authorities said.
During the operation, officers and specially trained canine teams from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife located lobsters stashed in duffel bags, backpacks, vehicles and even a baby stroller, authoritiesSix people were arrested on suspicion of several violations, including the “take of lobster out of season, exceeding the daily bag limits of lobster, take of undersized lobster, take of lobster by hook and line and possession of more than triple the daily bag limit of lobster,” according to Fish and Wildlife. Violating these rules can carry penalties of up to $1,000 per violation or up to one year in jail, authorities added.
Authorities said the poaching suspects were apprehended “recently” but did not give a specific date for the operation. Fish and Wildlife could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday. Each female spiny lobster produces one brood of 50,000 to 800,000 eggs per year, which they carry for around 10 weeks, the CDFW said.
“The loss of an egg-bearing female lobster can have a substantial impact on the health of the lobster fishery and directly impacts legal anglers,” the department wrote in the Facebook post. Seamus Bozeman is a reporting intern with the Los Angeles Times’ breaking news team and a Los Angeles native heading into his final year as a journalism major at Cal State Los Angeles. He is an avid reporter who focuses his coverage on labor issues and investigative journalism.
When he isn’t chasing a story, Bozeman enjoys rock climbing, cycling, hiking and being outside. You can find him on Instagram atThe Federal Emergency Management Agency recently approved California’s request to extend housing assistance to survivors of the Eaton and Palisades fires.
But more than 18 months after those January 2025 fires, survivors are still waiting on an additional $16 billion in federal disaster relief from the federal government, which was revised down earlier this year from nearly $34 billion. The Hillside Strangler murders terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1970s. The killers were a pair of sadistic cousins. One confessed.
The other was set to stand trial—until L.A. prosecutors flinched. For this episode, hosts Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito break down the year’s biggest milestones: Bad Bunny’s historic solo Super Bowl halftime show, Karol G becoming the first Latina to headline Coachella, and Fuerza Regida making history as the first Música Mexicana act to ever play Dodger Stadium.
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