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To celebrate the end of the year and the beginnning of the Crayfish season, I have been invited for crayfish diving. I have been never diving in my whole life and my experience with snorkles was also small. But the licence for the whole season costs only 60 RAND at the post office and it seems to be a lot of fun. The weather was a liitle bit rainy and the temperatures were around 20 degrees. Very welcome after a few very hot spring days and with diving the weather does not matter anyway.
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Some beach-loving people do not really care about rain. Henriette and her daughter Marianne were not very keen on diving, but they observed us from a distance. In the meantime, i made it into the water with all the equipment. But in order to dive, I will neet more courage, experience and knowledge in balancing (not enough weight!). Nevertheless, I had lots of fun and saltwater while observing fish and other stuff.
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The crayfish is almost like a lobster, only without clamps. He is also a little bit smaller and his official name is rock lobster. In South Africa, three kinds of rock lobster are known: west coast, east coast and south coast rock lobster. Thereby, the rock lobsters cover all the coasts of South Africa, and we were hunting the west coast rock lobster. With the licence mentioned earlier on, one is allowed to catch four rock lobsters per day during the season.
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Rock lobsters take a long time to become "huntable&qout;. While the male needs 5-7 years to reach his final size, the female takes up to 12 years. Due to these circumstances, every lobster to be caught, must have a length (body without tail) of 89 mm or more. By this, the population of rock lobsters is protected from extinction. Last but not least, the rock lobster tastes quite good, especially wich maionaise and grilled with garlic butter.
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