Divers have arrived and the weather looks good. Now it's up to the lobster to determine the success of this year's mini-season in the Florida Keys.</p><p>The annual lobster sport-diving season - running today and Thursday - seems to have lured larger crowds than in recent years, say dive operators and rental operators.</p><p>"We've already rented out every [dive] tank that we can rent out," Abyss Dive Center owner Bill Ferrell said Tuesday from his Marathon shop.</p><p>"I've talked to [Capt. Hook's Marina and Hall's Diving Center] and they've rented every tank, too," Ferrell said.</p><p>The Abyss dive boats have been completely booked since last year for today and tomorrow, Ferrell said. </p><p>The Lobster Information Booth at mile marker 106 opened earlier than expected, said Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Officer Bobby Dube, the booth coordinator. "We were setting up Friday to get ready for Saturday's opening but people kept rolling in to ask questions," Dube said. "So we decided that we're open."</p><p>Two carloads of visitors from Michigan drove 24 hours straight to make it in time for their first mini-season, Dube said.</p><p>"They read about it in a magazine and came down to see what it's all about," Dube said. "We had to give them the whole treatment - how to catch and measure a lobster, where to go, how to stay out of trouble."</p><p>Florida fishery managers estimate that in a typical year, more than half the 50,000 divers who chase lobster during the statewide mini-season head for the Keys. That amounts to approximately 30,000 divers.</p><p>Many of those stopped by the Lobster Information Booth to check on current rules. "It's been a few years since we've done mini-season, so we just wanted to make sure we know what we're talking about," said Miami resident Wes Ryan during a Monday stop.</p><p>Tony Bianco, a part-time Key Largo resident, wanted to double check rules since he will be accompanied by "some people who haven't done this that much."</p><p>"It's important to do things the right way," Bianco said.</p><p>Joe Lamb, whose truck carries an "I'd rather be lobstering" license-plate frame, said he travels from his Naples home to the Lower Keys every couple months, "not just for mini-season." "We like it here," he said. "It's close enough and the water's great."</p><p>Lobster mini-season always brings people for Upper Keys vacation rentals, said property manager Brandi Horton at Freewheeler Vacations' office in Islamorada.</p><p>"We're definitely busier than during the past three seasons," Horton said. "But lobster season always has been good for repeat customers. They book a year ahead."</p><p>"I know lobster season sometimes gets a bad rap," Horton said, "but the people we deal with are great."</p><p>"People coming down for vacation rentals often decide to make a week of it," said Daniel Samess from the Greater Marathon Chamber of Commerce. "It's a busy time for vacation rentals in the Middle Keys, so that trickles down to restaurants, dive shops and a lot of businesses."</p><p>During the sport-diving days in Monroe County, licensed divers can take a maximum of six lobster per day (the limit is 12 per day off most Florida coastlines).</p><p>Night diving for lobster is banned in the Keys during mini-season, although bully-netting from a boat is permitted.</p><p>Many protected areas are closed to lobster harvest today and Thursday, including all of John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park waters and Everglades National Park waters in Florida Bay and the Dry Tortugas.</p><p>During miniseason, nearshore diving within 300 feet of land has been banned throughout much of unincorporated Monroe County, and in the municipalities of Islamorada, Marathon, Layton and Key Colony Beach. That rule seeks to limit conflicts between divers and waterfront property owners.