It seemed that, as a 'recreational' fisherman, my buoys should be yellow, and marked with my name. Also it was pointed out, there were other restrictions. There was a recreational 'quota' of five pots, and a 100 metres of net. I thought that the chance of a lobster in five pots was pretty remote in the winter, and my experience of the seals meant that I was attracted to the option of 'actively' fishing more nets but for a shorter time,- perhaps even working them in the surf, so I asked about buying pot quota.
Well, it seemed pot quota was scarce and expensive, and anyway, what boat did I fish? I replied a kayak...
"You must be mad!"
I replied about how stable and seaworthy it was.
But, no, it seemed I couldn't have a license, as the boat hadn't got an engine.
That wasn't fair, I started to protest, but hang on, it meant I didn't need a license...
Did that mean I could sell my catch as well? There was a pause. Hmmm. Well, as long as I didn't start coming up the beach with wheelbarrow loads, it seemed that, yes, I could.
This is a glorious, enlightened loophole in the law, that allows unmechanised fishing to prosper without restriction, the actual physical limitations of rowing, paddling and sail-power being seen as sufficient rein.
I find this fact has an uncanny relevance in an age when we need more than ever to source our food locally,as sensibly as we can, with as little fossil-fuel input as possible.
The availability of sit-on kayaks means we have an effective means to fish wisely,and on a modest scale. Let's not blow it.
There are laws that apply to all fishermen.
The size limits are there to allow species sufficient life-span to breed, so we have to respect them: I actually wouldn't land a crab as small as the legal limit. You don't have to land everything you catch just because it's legal! I don't bring in berried females anymore, and lightly squeeze the size lobsters that I catch to see how solid they are. - What's the point of killing one that is half water as its only just shelled!
Before formal regulation of pot numbers, lobstermen used to have local 'gentlemens'' agreements about what they should fish and I'm sure that if a community of kayak fishermen developed, similar informal rules would develop.
If there are too many pots on a limited bit of ground then the lobsters will inevitably get scarce. So your fishing effort has to reflect how much ground you have within paddling distance, and how well fished it is already.
One ambitious lobsterman I knew declared once that you 'should never create a niche'
That meant in stark terms that his intention was to keep the locations where people were likely to start up over-fished, so they couldn't get successful enough to get sufficient gear to compete with him. It is such attitudes as his that have depleted our common fishery.
Let's not go down that road again.