NorCal Kayak Anglers

General => Fish Talk => Topic started by: Seabreeze on May 09, 2006, 11:08:31 AM

Title: Abalone shells?
Post by: Seabreeze on May 09, 2006, 11:08:31 AM
I got a bulletin from DFG.  It said people were cited for having abalone outside of their shells.  How can this be?
Title: Re: Abalone shells?
Post by: bsteves on May 09, 2006, 11:53:02 AM
I'd be careful Pat, even thinking about abalone south of San Francisco will probably get you a citation from DFG.  :smt018

There is in fact a regulation about this .... "Abalone must not be removed from the shell except when preparing for immediate consumption". 

There are probably a couple good reasons for this namely, it prevents waste and helps regulation enforcement...

1.) It makes it really tricky to store abalone in the freezer which ideally means you'd only catch what your going to eat soon.  And having the shells intact in the freezer makes it obvious whether you're violating the three ab at one time possesion limit or not.  Whereas a freezer full of non-descript white mollusk meat might be harder to enforce.

2.)  It's really hard to tell an abalone's shell size from its foot size.  If you were allowed to possess abalone without the shell, it would be a lot easier to get away with keeping under sized abalone.  For example, ... catch a bunch of 6 inch abalone, remove and discard shells, place in cooler with some nice 7 inch shells.  Without the "attached shell rule", Fish and Game would be helpless to prove that your abs were undersized.

Below are the rules on abalone from the DFG...
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mrd/mapregs3.html

Abalone

The recreational fishery for red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) north of the mouth of San Francisco Bay will be open from April 1 through June 30, and from August 1 through November 30, 2006. The following regulations apply:

Title: Re: Abalone shells?
Post by: Seabreeze on May 09, 2006, 12:42:49 PM
uhhhhhhhhh.............I was just "thinking" about my friends north of SF.......yeah......that's what I was doing, Brian.......... :angel1:
Title: Re: Abalone shells?
Post by: promethean_spark on May 09, 2006, 02:33:27 PM
You're allowed to have the shells of any size abalone though.  I found some green ab shells and one small red in big sur last weekend.

I just put them in gallon zip-locks and put them in the deep freeze whole.  It's no big deal.  Once they thaw out they're very easy to peel free of their shell.  If you've only got a fridge freezer this might be prohibitive though.
Title: Re: Abalone shells?
Post by: bsteves on May 09, 2006, 03:51:14 PM
Pat,

It seems you were right to question the press release, you just picked the wrong statement to question.

I just read that DFG press release and found one major typo of note..right before the sentence about abalones not being removed from the shell...

Quote
They scrutinize the tools used by the harvesters, ensuring that abalone irons are at least 36 inches long with no sharp edges.

It should read   "... ensuring that abalone irons are no more than 36 inches..." 


Brian


Title: Re: Abalone shells?
Post by: KayakJames on May 10, 2006, 12:51:06 AM
I once had a warden warn me for colecting abalone shells from the beach but he could not give me a ticket because I knew the regs. You can keep the sheels you find as long as they have been picked clean and they have no meet whatsoever, at this point you can keep any size shell you want
Title: Re: Abalone shells?
Post by: JohnGuineaPig on May 16, 2006, 11:25:19 AM
so if i am down at otter cove and find a bunch of shells from abalone that are about 4-5" and want to keep them it would be ok? or does that fall into the invertebrate rules for the monterey bay? anyone know?