By Patrick Burgess Licensed lobster diver Steve Antonition was fined $500 yesterday for having too many crustaceans in his boat on the first day of the six month season.

Antonition did not convince Police and Fisheries officers when they spoke to him around 1.15 p.m. on September 1 that the two extra lobsters partially hidden under a towel were his wife's.

Crown Counsel Charmaine Smith told Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner a Fisheries Warden was not convinced with Antonition's "excuses''.

Antonition, 42, of Northcourt Avenue, Pembroke, claimed he had just dropped off his wife who had caught the pair of lobsters. She was headed back to work.

He was pulled over that day at Ely's Harbour, Sandys, as he rode in his small outboard licence number 6106.

An unidentified lawyer, speaking on behalf of Antonition, said he was a "keen and avid'' lobster fisherman and had participated in a Task Force in the run up to the Green Paper on fisheries.

"He had been out with his wife who is also a licensed diver,'' he said.

"Four lobsters were taken while his wife was in the boat. He had a better day than her. But she was on the boat and he dropped her off at the former Bierman's Quarry.'' FISHERMEN FHP