Lobster Diving in Southern California: Season, Rules, and Where to Go

The 2026 to 2027 recreational lobster season opens at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, October 2, 2026, and runs through Wednesday, March 17, 2027. Divers take California spiny lobster by hand and nothing else. Every diver needs a Spiny Lobster Report Card and a measuring gauge, and divers 16 or older also need a sport fishing license. The limit is 7 lobsters, each at least 3 1/4 inches along the body shell. The harder question is where. Marine protected areas close some of the best-known reefs in Southern California, while a few conservation areas that close most other take stay open to lobster.

Season and Dates

California's rule sets the season with a weekday formula instead of fixed dates. It opens at 6:00 p.m. on the Friday before the first Wednesday in October and closes at 11:59:59 p.m. on the first Wednesday after March 15. Because the opener falls at 6:00 p.m., the first legal hunt of the season is an evening one. The 2027 to 2028 season will open on October 1, 2027. CDFW describes the seasonal closure as protection for egg-bearing females from late April through August.

Before Getting in the Water

A California sport fishing license is required for anyone 16 or older, and a resident annual license costs $64.54 in 2026. South of Point Arguello in Santa Barbara County, the holder also needs an Ocean Enhancement Validation ($7.30) unless the diver holds a 1-day or 2-day license.

CDFW requires a Spiny Lobster Report Card for all persons taking spiny lobster, and it costs $12.70. The CDFW License App can display a license, but CDFW says the app does not replace the paper report card, which the diver must carry and write every entry on.

The holder writes the month, day, location, and gear code on the card before starting, then records the number of lobsters kept on moving to a new spot or finishing for the day. After the season, every card has to be reported to CDFW by April 30, 2027, even if its holder never went out or caught nothing. Online reporting opens on March 18, 2027. A card that misses the deadline brings a $21.60 non-return fee on the next season's card.

Anyone fishing for or taking lobster must also carry a device that can accurately measure one. CDFW recommends a lobster gauge with a fixed 3 1/4-inch gap.

Legal Gear

Free divers, who dive on a single breath, and scuba divers may take lobster with their hands only. CDFW's rules call free divers skin divers. Tickle sticks, the rods some people use to coax a lobster out of a den, are prohibited, and so are snares, spears, and any similar device used to take a lobster or help take one. A diver may not possess any hooked device while diving, and wire traps are prohibited for recreational take.

The only other legal method is the hoop net. A person may use up to 2 hoop nets from a public pier or up to 5 from a boat, with no more than 10 per boat. Every net has to be raised and checked at least once every 2 hours. South of Point Arguello, hoop nets may not be set in the 24 hours before the season opens.

Hoop netters have had 2 more rules since January 1, 2026. The first makes it illegal to disturb, move, or damage another person's net, although people on a boat may use someone else's net while its owner or operator is present. The second bans the unique line markings that other West Coast state and federal fisheries require.

Where Lobsters Live

The California spiny lobster lives on rocky reef with crevices, ledges, and boulder piles, and it is common where reef mixes with kelp forest. Young lobsters live in dense surf grass in less than 15 feet of water, and adults have been recorded from the intertidal zone to more than 200 feet. Lobsters are active at night and spend the day backed into dens in the reef, often with only their long antennae showing.

Because of the hands-only rule, most of the work is finding the lobster. A diver has to spot the animal, reach in, and pin the body shell against the rock by hand before the tail flips it deeper into the crack. Adults move into deeper water as winter goes on. The Ichthyopedia entry names October through early winter as the best season, before the most pressured reefs are picked over and while lobsters are still in shallower water.

Measuring and Limits

The minimum size is 3 1/4 inches of carapace length, measured in a straight line along the middle of the back from the rear edge of the eye socket to the rear edge of the body shell. A lobster is legal when its carapace length is equal to or longer than the gauge's fixed gap.

Divers have to measure each lobster while still in the water, and an undersized lobster may not leave the water. It goes back at once. A short lobster may not go into a catch bag or any other container, and it may not stay on the diver or under the diver's control. Hoop netters measure as soon as the net comes out of the water.

The bag and possession limit is 7 lobsters per person. A bag limit is the most one person may take in a day, and a possession limit is the most one person may hold at one time. According to CDFW's newsletter, exceeding the limit, taking undersized lobsters, or taking lobster by hook and line can each bring a fine of up to $1,000 per violation or up to a year in jail.

Where Lobster Take Is Closed

California's marine protected areas come in 2 main kinds. A State Marine Reserve prohibits all take, meaning the catching or collecting of any animal or plant. A State Marine Conservation Area prohibits take except for a short list of activities that differ from area to area, and those labeled No-Take close all fishing and collecting. The list below covers the areas closest to the spots on Nautical Nick in San Diego, Orange, and Los Angeles Counties and at Catalina and Anacapa Islands. California has many more, and CDFW's maps set the official boundaries.

• San Diego County: La Jolla Cove and the water off La Jolla Shores sit inside Matlahuayl State Marine Reserve. The neighboring San Diego-Scripps Coastal State Marine Conservation Area allows only anchovy, sardine, and 2 kinds of mackerel by hook and line. Farther south are South La Jolla State Marine Reserve and, outside it, the South La Jolla State Marine Conservation Area, where only open-water fish by hook and line are allowed. Swami's State Marine Conservation Area allows spearfishing for white seabass and open-water fish, and lobster is not on its list. Cabrillo State Marine Reserve covers the water from the shoreline out to 30 feet of depth off the southern tip of Point Loma.
• Orange County: Laguna Beach State Marine Reserve covers roughly 4.4 miles of shore from Abalone Point south to Goff Island. The Laguna Beach State Marine Conservation Area (No-Take) continues the closure south from Goff Island to Table Rock.
• Los Angeles County: Point Vicente State Marine Conservation Area (No-Take) covers the Palos Verdes coast around Point Vicente. Abalone Cove State Marine Conservation Area allows only market squid by dip net and spearfishing for white seabass and open-water fish, which leaves lobster closed. Near Malibu, Point Dume State Marine Reserve sits beside the Point Dume State Marine Conservation Area, whose exceptions do not include lobster.
• Catalina Island: Casino Point State Marine Conservation Area (No-Take) and Lover's Cove State Marine Conservation Area, both next to Avalon, allow no lobster take. Long Point State Marine Reserve lies between Avalon and Two Harbors. None of the Blue Cavern Onshore, Blue Cavern Offshore, Farnsworth Onshore, or Farnsworth Offshore State Marine Conservation Areas allows lobster. The Arrow Point to Lion Head Point State Marine Conservation Area, northwest of Two Harbors, prohibits all recreational take of invertebrates, which includes lobster.
• Anacapa Island: Anacapa Island State Marine Reserve is closed to all take.

Where Lobster Take Is Allowed

Outside every marine protected area, the statewide rules above apply. Near the spots on Nautical Nick, 3 conservation areas are open to recreational lobster while closing most other take.

• Crystal Cove State Marine Conservation Area, which covers the whole shoreline of Crystal Cove State Park from Little Corona del Mar south to Abalone Point, allows recreational lobster and sea urchin, plus finfish by hook and line or spear. Crystal Cove has cobble and boulder in the shallows and giant kelp on the rocky bottom offshore, all a short swim from the park's beaches. The state park charges $15 for day use in its 4 paid lots. Little Corona del Mar Beach, a protected cove at the conservation area's northern boundary, is one of the easier shore dives in the county.
• Dana Point State Marine Conservation Area has the same exceptions. It covers Thousand Steps Beach, Strands Beach, and Salt Creek Beach Park. At Thousand Steps Beach, rock runs out from both ends of the sand into the shallows. The Laguna Beach no-take area begins about 1,600 feet up the coast at Table Rock.
• Anacapa Island State Marine Conservation Area allows recreational lobster and a list of open-water fish. Coral Reef, off the west end of West Anacapa Island, lies inside this area, in 25 to 90 feet of water, with current over the reef on most tide changes.

The Crystal Cove and Dana Point conservation areas both prohibit taking anything from a tidepool.

Shore and Boat Sites Beyond the Protected Areas

Bluff Cove on the Palos Verdes Peninsula sits outside every protected area on the peninsula, so the statewide rules apply. Its shallows are bare reef, and kelp anchors on deeper rock at 35 to 45 feet. The spot page rates it for advanced shore divers only because of the steep trail, the cobble entry, and surge over the reef. The Point Vicente no-take area begins to the south, and no marker shows the line underwater.

Point Loma is San Diego County's main boat-access dive site, a kelp chain about 6 miles long, and its central and northern kelp sit outside Cabrillo State Marine Reserve. Off the Ventura and Los Angeles County line, the Deep Hole and County Line reefs are a boat-access complex of boulders, rock piles, and pinnacles, and Ventura and Oxnard charters run dedicated lobster trips there in the fall. At the Channel Islands, Talcott Shoal off the northwest corner of Santa Rosa Island is a long-standing lobster ground. Its parallel rocky ledges run from 20 feet on the ridges to 80 feet or more in the troughs.

The reef off Carpinteria Beach is a well-known lobster ground, about 3/4 of a mile offshore and around 25 feet deep. A proposed Mishopshno State Marine Conservation Area there would prohibit all take except recreational hook-and-line fishing for finfish from shore. The California Fish and Game Commission scheduled hearings on it for October 15 and 16, 2026. CDFW's map shows which rules are in force on the day of a trip.

Last Season in Numbers

CDFW's newsletter summarizes the 2025 to 2026 season from returned report cards. Divers and hoop netters reported more than 49,400 trips and more than 136,800 legal lobsters kept. That catch was the largest of any season since 2013, when CDFW began seasonal report cards. Hoop nets, rigid and traditional combined, took 61.6% of the reported catch, free divers 21.6%, and scuba divers 16.9%. Scuba divers kept the most per trip, at 3.6 lobsters, against 3.0 for rigid hoop nets, the most common kind, and 2.2 for free divers. CDFW sold 39,205 cards that season, and only 41% of them were reported.

The regulations in this guide were checked against CDFW's pages on September 26, 2026. CDFW changes rules between seasons, and its pages are the final word on any given day.