Fishermen left a meeting boiling mad with Government?s plans to impose a lottery on almost all for a licence to catch lobsters in the upcoming season with one man predicting ?civil war on the water?.

Only one member of the Ministry of the Environment?s Department of Fisheries turned up at the closed-door meeting at the Botanical Gardens.

The lobster season begins on September 1. The new lottery draw will mean that at least five fishermen will lose a licence for pots to fish for lobster until March 31, costing them thousands of dollars which they have already invested in getting ready for the start of the lucrative season. The fisherman who turned up to last night?s meeting at the Department of Fisheries were outraged that the Minister of Environment Neletha Butterfield did not attend the meeting.

Earlier yesterday, the Director of the Department of Environmental Protection, Dr. Thomas Sleeter told that commercial fishermen 65-years and older would ?rollover? from last year to qualify for a licence, while the remaining licences would be awarded by lottery from the pool of fishermen who meet the qualification criteria.

Commercial lobster fishery licences cost $1,500 each and include 12 Government-supplied traps ? making a total of 324 traps available this year.

Fisherman David Barnes said the fishermen had all agreed to give up 60 lobster traps to open the door to five new lobster fishermen so that more people in their trade could take part.

What galled many of the fishermen was the fact they were being told about the lottery just two weeks before the start of the season.

Peter Rans said: ?Everybody is against the lottery and we told Government two weeks we were against it, this is dictatorship, Government is telling us take the lottery or lose out ? this could cause civil war on the water and young people are getting the short end of the stick.

?Government have split us in half in an effort to divide and conquer. The people who made up these rules did not bother to show up at the meeting but this will hurt everybody.?

Another fisherman, who asked to not be named, said ?these guys are no longer guaranteed to earn their living!? and said they had ?no problem? allowing in other fishermen but concluded: ?It just needs to be done sensibly.?

A spokeswoman from the Department of Environmental Protection said this week that only about 250 divers have applied so far for their special licences from the average 500 divers who apply every year.

These licences are restricted to free divers, not scuba divers and licence holders are restricted to two lobsters a day, which they are not allowed to sell, and they must use a noose, not a spear.

Those licensed last year are urged by the Fisheries Department to re-licence by mail by sending the licence and a cheque for $115, payable to the Accountant General, to the Division of Fisheries, P.O. Box CR 52, Crawl, CR BX.

The bag limit of two lobsters per person, per day and the minimum carapace length of 92 mm will remain in place this year.

While holders of lobster diver licences are reminded to display a ?diver down? flag when they are in the water.

Since divers catch about 1,500 spiny lobsters a season, they are also encouraged to keep statistical records of their catches.