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Posted by tleemay on September 04, 2008 at 15:41:21:
Been reading the last few months about the experiences others
have had in regards to picking up the new 2008 CA Spiny Lobster
Card (FG doc 685). I didn’t want to wait until the last minute,
so I set out to get mine this week. Walked into Queens Wharf; the girl behind the counter had no
idea what a lobster card was. Neither did Dave, the dude she
checked with in the back room office. Drove to 22nd Street Landing; Asked the guy with thick glasses
if he had any lobster cards. He furled his brow and said "what
are those?” I explained to him what they were. Suddenly he
knew all about them, but they didn't sell them - try Pacific
Wilderness was his advice. Drove back up the hill to Pacific St. Walked into Pacific
Wilderness. The very nice guy behind the counter said they
don't sell fishing licenses or lobster cards. After a brief
discussion about the problem I was having (the same problem he
was going to have he said) he suggested I try a Sport Chalet. Drove to the Long Beach Sport Chalet on Carson. Walked up to
the cashier and asked for a card. She knew what they were, but
didn't know where they were. Another girl assisted the first
girl in locating the sales stub book containing many already
sold and a few available un-sold lobster cards. I was asked to write in my own stub information, the usual
name, home address, DOB, home ph no, etc. When I got to
the final line of the information required, the card asks for
my current CA F&G fishing license number. Since my license
resides in my gear bag, I didn't have it with me. I also don't
have my fishing license number memorized. The girls both said they didn't know what to do, so a manager
was called. Another girl shows up dressed in a business suit.
She looked over my information and checked my ID. She told the
girls to go ahead and sell me the cards. She then proceeded to
tell me that they were taking a chance with F&G by selling me
the license (she almost told me to go home and get my license...
over 50 miles away). The bottom line per the manager at this
Sport Chalet; bring in your current fishing license or they
might not sell you a lobster card. Since I had the lobster card stub book in front of me for 4 or
5 minutes or so, I got a very good look at it. I have to
question the records keeping copy stubs of the cards previously
sold; they are terribly incomplete. There were outright missing
stubs, stubs with no entry information completed, some with
just the name of the purchaser entered. Seems rather strange
that they would require to see my current fishing license when
they have been releasing incomplete licenses previously. So, I got my card just fine - it just took a lot of work. The F&G website says that the cards are available from agents
who sell regular licenses. After my experience, I think F&G
needs to communicate with at least the fishing charter shops
making sure they know such cards may be asked for. Maybe this
is something Sonke Mastrup can have followed up on.
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