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- Mar 8, 2004
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SanClementeEric;129181 said:From what I read in your letter from Ed, there are two species of octopus that you CANNOT take (Octopus
bimaculoides and O. bimaculoidoides) and any others can only be taken with a marine aquaria collector's permit, as repeated in my letter from Carrie.
So, no debate.
I don't see how you can interpret this passage from Ed's letter that way:
So, these two species of octopus may not be taken legally for the California marine aquaria trade.
These two species of octopus can be taken under the authority of a sport fishing license. There are no regulations that would prohibit you from displaying live specimens of O. bimaculatus and O. bimaculoides in your home aquarium for your hobby. You may run into problems if your intent is to supply specimens for fellow hobbyists or businessess.
particularly given that the letter was specifically in response to a query about people collecting for their own use. I'm not saying Ed is right and Carrie is wrong, just that Ed seemed to explicitly say it was OK for personal use as long as you don't give the octo to anyone else... Ed's response was specifically in regards to a question about "suppose I wanted to collect a live bimac for my own aquarium?" so I'm fairly confident in reading that as "there's no problem with catching a live bimac with a sport fishing license and displaying it in your own home aquarium."
Perhaps it would be best to ask them what they meant rather than argue among ourselves; I don't know much at all, but until you reported the information from Carrie, I thought Ed's letter was pretty unambiguous in saying it would be OK. I don't want to get anyone in trouble by telling them it's OK to collect their own bimacs if it isn't, but I also don't want to tell people it's illegal until we're sure that it is, since it seems like something a number of California TONMO folks would be interested in taking advantage of if it is allowed.