There are plenty of lobsters in California waters.
With California coastal lobsters selling for $7 to $15 a pound on U.S. retail market, state Department of Fish and Game officials said there is significant lobster poaching off the Southern California coast. Officials described the problem as moderate, but persistent, with commercial poachers sometimes taking hundreds of the crustaceans. Sport divers poach smaller amounts, authorities said, but they damage lobster fishing equipment or kill lobsters they don't want to eat.
However, like I said, it seems the lobsters are mostly in Southern California, not Northern, while abalone are the reverse. Hence, it seems more likely this could have been an abalone poacher....which wasn't immediately obvious to us East Coasters because our lobsters are more common the further north you go.
And as much as people don't want to admit it, about 99% of the time in a breaking POSSIBLE terrorism story, the most mundane, least-terrorism-related explanation turns out to be correct.
Heinlein's razor...never attribute to human malice what can more easily be attributed to human stupidity. ;-)
HEAR HEAR!
And back on the lobsters, I am from Washington, not CA, so after I made such a bold statement, I went looking too, and found the southern CA lobster.... surprise suprise.
And "Thank You" for being so quick to provide that explanation, even if it is totally assinine and uninformed!
Abalone poacher! Lobsters! LOL!