Abalone populations?

This is something that everyone says, but it really seems true to me:  Whenever I go out diving up here in Mendo land, I always see tons of abalone.  Since the season opened this year, I've dove three popular spots: MacKerricker, Caspar, and the Mendocino headlands.  In every one of these not so secret spots spots I found abalone carpets.  I'm mostly looking for fish and have resolved to only take one snail a day (to make my tags last), but it seems to me that there's no shortage of them.

If you think about what the abalone populations were like here before the Russian fur traders wiped out the sea otters, you'd have to conclude that there are many more abalone now than 150 years ago.  When you dive down in Monterey where there are otters, you never see any abalone.  Yet before the otter recovery, the was a commercial fishery for them there.

So I'm reading some of the "science" in the MLPA thing regarding abalones, and they're stating that MPAs are needed to protect the large breeding females.  Even though they also say that the really large ones (>215 mm) produce many dead eggs, and they're not sure of the viability of the remainder in the old animals.  In fact the science suggests that the medium ones (around 8") produce the greatest proportion of live eggs.

So I'm kinda scratching my head thinking how is it being spun that the abalone fishery in NorCal is somehow threatened, when it actually appears that traditional restrictions (freediving, etc) are very successful?

In the paper I read where the authors concluded that MPAs were needed to increase the number of bigger females (illogically in light of their other findings), they compared the NorCal ab fishery with the SoCal ab fishery.  They stated that SoCal had size limits (like us), but that didn't stop the collapse of the fishery down there.  Hmmm..... there' just one little thing they didn't bring up:  Like the existence of plundering commercial ab fishery, where abs were counted in hundreds of dozens, and sport guys could take them with tanks.  Just a slight difference there.

I've heard wardens and the department's ab biologist state that there doesn't appear to be much recruitment (spawning), but if that were the case why are so many abs in places like Van Damme and Salt Point?  And why hasn't the Department done a scientific stock assessment?  They keep spinning this recruitment thing without much evidence to back it up.  And the report cards are a joke scientifically. All they report is take (maybe), not how the fishery is responding to take.

Anyhow, that's my not so scientific observation.  I see lots of them everywhere I dive

Right there with you Dave, its hard to find a spot that isn't wallpapered with abs.  If a place like Van Damme still has a large standing crop...and it does...then recruitment is happening. 

The real shame is this is our BEST MANAGED, MOST SUSTAINABLE, HIGH VALUE FISHERY and the MLPA is possibly going to screw it up. 

In every one of these not so secret spots spots I found abalone carpets. 
Anyhow, that's my not so scientific observation.  I see lots of them everywhere I dive

Me too, and from all of the other divers I know.

Gotta agree, but then again the people implementing the MLPA don't seem to care about the best science, only about agenda.  Its funny how you aren't hearing about specific studies invisioned for the future. I might be able to live with that if they were telling you upfront just what they wanted to take a closer look at.  Anyways, there are a lot of legal size abs everywhere and the no take MLPAs will only concentrate take in areas that are open. Its doesn't rocket science to see what will come next....shorter and shorter seasons....for NO good reason!

in most spots i have gotten abalone i have seen a lot. i mean they are not necessarily big but they are there, they are plentiful and depending where they are they are either thinner or thicker.

in other places i have gotten abalone i have seen hordes of them diseased on the shell with some kind of plaque and spongy looking rot on the shells as well as strange deformities on them. the meat appeared ok and im still kicking so it was safe to eat although the shells looked really bad.

then in another place i dove near pedotti ranch i saw mounds of abalone shells littered on the bottom which looked to have been there for a while and the guy i went with said that a large abalone poaching ring was using this area to unload shells and harvest from a boat which was supposed to be getting urchins or something. they got caught after a while. in this area i saw very few legal sized abalone and found mostly shells and barren rocks. it was like an underwater desert and looked like abalone burial grounds.

i think that its great that there is a limit and that we can see a lot of them when we go out. to be surrounded by something so precious. yes 24 is the max but thats enough right? of all the marine resources we have and the most coveted we should protect the abalone. the california red abalone is a prized creature. and soon it might be the last thing we can call our own.

with the perceived value of abalone for consumption has driven people to poach this animal due to their greed. even if the limit per year was higher i think we'd still see poaching no matter how you set the limit.

my favorite thing to do when i go for abalone is to park just north of fort ross, walk down a trail and jump in the ocean to head west about 1/4 mile out. the terrain consists of huge boulders and the abalone there thick and around 10". walls of them. not like the diving in north fort ross cove. around these albalone sit big cabezon and large ling cod too as well as a variety of RF.

i like going out and seeing lots of abalone in places and i am all for controlling of it. monterey and other southern places used to allow for abalone harvesting and now when i dive down there i see one abalone in maybe every 3 trips. its really sad to see. its so rare to see one over 4" alive in Monterey and Carmel where i dive. the otters sure eat a lot of them. i see lots of shells though.

this weekend looks good for abalone diving!

I'm all for controlling it too, just agreeing that the info out there saying they are in need of help is a joke.

I like JohnGuineaPig's attitude.  Pure diver there.

I've dove in Mendo and Sonoma, and it's true that there are places with lots of abs and recruitment seems to be very successful even in the face of heavy harvesting like at Van Damme.  It's different up here in Humboldt though.  There are places where I would see many abs 10 and 15 years ago that now it's easy to get skunked.  The extremely nearshore areas are most prolific here because offshore, where you might think there'd be lots of abs, it's actually barren due to high silt levels which limit the kelp growth, so there's not an offshore breeding population that will fill-in what gets picked nearshore.  It's true in Trinidad, Petrolia, and other areas along the Humboldt Coast.  The only area in Humboldt I've dove that seems to be doing well in the face of heavy harvest is the southwest point of Shelter Cove - there are 1000's of just legal abs there, and many people rockpick and dive there every year.  Of course, it's nothing like it used to be, but it does seem to be weathering it.  When you see a hike-in spot along the Lost Coast, like Sealion Gulch, go from 9"+'s everywhere to hard to find an ab at all, it's sad.  I'd be for protecting some of those areas - but a rotation makes more sense, like close an area for 5 or 10 years then open it again if the population has improved.  The thing with abalone though is that there are always some that people don't find or can't get, so why close an area when people will just stop going there if it's too hard to get one there?

The big distinction between north and south is that withering foot disease requires warmer waters to infect and/or kill abalone.  It seems the boundary for that is right around pt reyes - otherwise we'd be diving for abs off muir beach and we'd see them at linda mar and bean hollow where there aren't otters but there is potential abalone habitat.

I saw a couple abalone at san clemente, possibly legal sized, and a couple shells too.  But that was in two tank dives covering a lot of ground looking for lobsters (which hang in the same areas as abs).

Abalone stock surveys, where divers go down and measure abs, tend to measure huge numbers of large abs, but very few small ones, leading to the claim that recruitment is poor - but it could well be that the tiny abalone are just extremely hard to find and so they aren't being counted.  The current thinking is that abalone need a certain set of conditions to successfully spawn, which happens a couple times per decade, and there's concern of a crash if we go a generation (0-8") between banner spawning years.  I guess we'll know soon enough. 

I believe that the 'de facto reserve' from 30-100' deep is sufficient to gurantee the health of the abalone fishery.  There are a lot of BIG abalone on isolated rock outcrops in 40' of water.  They can't get off to shallow water, and few divers can find or get at them there.

The abs on the North Coast are doing great and thats inconvenient for the folks that need chronic crisis and calamity to make their lives work.
 Trying to invent a crisis to then provide a ready made solution is just what bureaucrats do.
 That have done it in many areas, why not in abalone fishery as well?
The current restrictions on the North coast do the job well...automatically.
 The tinkering, over reaching, over-bothering the abalone success story defines them as just unfulfllled office people in search of a crisis .
If they were sincere and wanted to be helpful, the CAL DFG should just continue the commercial anti- poaching activity where they become heroes and stop trying to create crimes with their confusing and fastidious nit-picking of 3- ab limit sports divers.
Of course sports divers must obey the law...and CAL DFG needs to be more serious and less "token" in going after the real threats that there are.
I buy my liscenses, carry the gage, stick to the limit and do the right thing...and still I fear an error in doing something slightly incorrect.
 I think perhaps my next dive buddy should be a lawyer to help remain in compliance with the ever changing and silly little procedures for honest people.
 Meanwhile, some night this week , some pair of poachers will sneak out 70 abs for the black market and do no paperwork at all, let alone afix his little colored tie tags.
Steve

Meanwhile, some night this week , some pair of poachers will sneak out 70 abs for the black market and do no paperwork at all, let alone affix his little colored tie tags.
Steve

Ouch! Ain't that the truth. This may draw some flames, but here is how I see it: I would like to see more wardens on the ground - yeah I know the current budget crisis in California precludes it, but I would be willing to pay more for the report card/tags (for round numbers, let's say $40 for an Ab card) to have our DFG diligently pursue the poochers engaged in black market operations. Mere presence could help deter poochers.

An open question to those here in the industry and in periphery - could this work? If not, what could - post it. My guess is that some FG folks lurk on sites like this to gauge the pulse.

John

John and Eric make good points:  It's great to see these big groups of large abalone hanging off walls and such.  And some localized areas with easy access have been combed through pretty well.  However, I have to counter with the argument that these large populations of big abs are, for the most part, unnatural and a result of human intervention and management.

When Russians first came to this coast for the sole purpose of hunting sea otters, abalone were generally not super abundant and certainly well hidden.  Otters, which rely on their tremendous metabolisms to stay warm (unlike other marine mammals that use fat), basically clear cut any exposed abalone off the rocks.  The ab population survives by staying hidden in cracks in rocks, with smaller animals being the breeders.  This is what you see in Monterey and that area.  If you look carefully they're in there, but they're tucked way back.

Around 1900 on this north coast, after the otter population had been gone for about 40-50 years, the abalone population responded by exploding, and in turn a commercial hardhat diving ab fishery developed all up and down the coast.

So we are managing this fishery for what we want, not what is natural.  And the important point is, by anyone's reckoning that's looked into the history of the fishery, there are more abalone here now than before the Europeans got here.

Here are my general beefs:  Further restrictions on the fishery have a lot of serious socio-economic implications up here on the North Coast.  We now live on tourism, and our job here is to provide for others from outside the area a quality experience so we in turn can make a living.  If the Department states the fishery is in jeopardy, then by all means we must bite the bullet.  However, as public servants it is their job to do the proper research and studies to back up their statements.  This is a big deal for us economically, and I don't believe they have done their "due diligence."

Other divisions of the Department as well as other agencies have done very credible stock assessments and analysis on other fisheries.  The salmon situation today is one.  It would be hard to say the present salmon assesments are wrong.  They count fish well.  The abalone fishery, on the other hand, has nothing like that.  I have not seen a North coast abalone stock assessment.  They even state that in the absence of information, they are taking a conservative approach.  This approach is wise, but the other part of the equation is.......get the information.  Having general population estimates is the first step in fishery management.  They are supposed to be scientists.

Here's my other beef:  By what I've observed, and almost every other poster here has observed, the biggest part of the abalone problem is black market poaching.  More rules and restricted areas will only make abalone more valuable on the black market and increase poaching, further straining the law enforcement budget.  Big time poaching depletes the resource vastly more than sport freedivers.  And the other side of that coin is that it's not quantifiable.  We don't know how many they take.

So here is a known problem for the resource, with a known solution.  It's not rocket science.  More and better Wardens can solve this problem.  A larger, well paid, intelligent force force of crack law enforcement agents would do more for the resource than any MPA.  Not only from the actual busts, but from the popular myths generated: That they are sharp and they catch bad guys.  All this would take is some money, and some wisdom.  And probably a lot less money than what the Packard foundation has put into this MLPA thing already.

Man, if you read all this, you're more obsessed than me.  Or maybe ab-sessed is the right word.

It was purely coincidence that my last post was made before I poached...er found this story on spearboard.com.
 This poor guy had exactly the kind of hostile experience I alluded to.
Its long story but worth the read...
Apparently, some inferior officers in the Cal DFG who see their jobs as a lisence to bully people for ego reasons rather then protect anything.
So it is now against the law to fill out a card higher then the tideline???
Steve
[Yikes...so I am a lawbreaker afterall.]






New Abalone Regs - A Cautionary tale
This weekend I was staying with some friends at a house in The Sea Ranch. On Saturday afternoon, a buddy and I dove into the cove near their house. I have a current Abalone License, so I took my iron and gauge; he does not have a license, so he did not go for Abalone.
Dive conditions were stellar. 25 foot vis, little swell, and, at least in this cove, little wind. We had a good time. The Abalone were like a carpet on the bottom. At one point I looked up and saw someone who looked like an official on the ridge above us. I know that the Sea Ranch is always looking out for poachers in these coves, so I yelled to him that I was staying in one of the houses on the bluff and asked if I should come out. He yelled that we could come out whenever we wanted.
We figured he would check my abs and license and that there was no reason to keep him waiting. I got two more abs to fill out my limit. We got out of the water the same way we came in: beaching on a wash rock, removing fins and masks, and then climbing hand over hand up a 25 foot, nearly vertical cliff.
When I got to the top of the cliff, I saw that the officer was from the Sheriff’s department. I said "I'll just fill out my card and tag these Abs, Officer?" and he said "It's too late. You should have filled out the card down there."
You won't be surprised to read that our conversation continued. He told me that I should have tagged the Abs immediately upon exit. I agreed that I should, and said that I was in the process of doing just that. He said that I should have tagged them down on the wash rock, and I said that there was no way to do that safely: between the top of the cliff and the sea there is only the cliff and the wash rock, which is wide open to sleeper waves. I couldn't safely strip off my gear and fill out a license without being on dry land.
He had us walk over to his patrol car and cited me for "Failure to tag Abalone upon immediately exiting the water". He also got me for trespassing - I was confident that the owners of the house I was staying in had worked out something with the neighbors about using their land for access, but the officer called the neighbor, who informed him that that was not true. That's going to be an expensive mistake on my part. The officer told us that he has personally known this neighbor for a long time and makes a point of checking for trespassers on his land.
I'm planning to contest the Abalone violation in court. I think that if I show some pictures of the scene and the site access, anyone who's not out to write me a ticket will understand that I tried to fill out my card in the first safe place to do so. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any good pictures of the place, as the deputy told me that he'd cite me again for trespassing if I tried to do so, and declined to go with me to supervise my taking the pictures. This seemed punitive, as his patrol car was less than a hundred feet from the site of the alleged infraction. He also threatened the owner of the house I was staying in with a trespassing citation when she came out to see what was going on. Bear in mind that this part of the Sea Ranch has no fences: she just walked across her yard to the officer, and was told that she'd best get going, or else.
Before issuing the ticket, the officer suggested that he could nail me for many other offences: First, he claimed that my dive buddy was taking Abalone without a license, despite his having not taken any Abalone. He had seen me hand my friend the Iron at one point, and had also noticed that my friend had pretty good bottom time on his dives. I handed him the Iron because we couldn’t attach the Iron to the boogie board, and one of us always had to be holding it. We agreed that that might not look great, but the fact was that my buddy hadn’t taken any Abalone. The Deputy told us that he dives alone to avoid the problem altogether. Does anyone know if that kind of circumstantial evidence can result in a fine?
Second, he reminded me that I should have had my license with me in the water, instead of having left it on the cliff. I realized right away that he was right, and told him so. I'm curious as to why he did not cite me for this. His demeanor made it clear he was not out to do me any favors.
Third, he told me that the kind of combination Ab Iron/ Gauge I was using (with the gauge built into the handle of the iron) was no longer legal for use as a gauge.
After writing me the ticket for trespassing and not tagging the Abs, the officer gave my buddy a stern talking to, and we both went home. We're pretty sure my friend got away clean. I will find out how much this is supposed to cost me in a few weeks.
I'm still not sure what to think of the experience. I agree that I had done something wrong. This year's DFG regs clearly state that I should have had the license with me in the water. But that's not what I was cited for, and I don't think that any reasonable lawman would have written me the ticket I got. I had my license in my hand with the intent to tag my abalone as soon as it was safe to do so, but according to this guy, I was not fast enough   
I feel like the increasing complexity of the legal Abalone fishing process is not doing anyone any favors. I am a law abiding, earth loving, U.C. Berkeley Environmental Sciences graduate with an extensive training in Marine Biology. The only seafood I ever eat is what I catch myself, from fisheries that I personally observe to be abundant. I never, ever fish illegally. I don't ever fish in places I feel are underpopulated, and in my opinion that includes the entire Monterey and Carmel area. I was clearly making every effort to legally take Abalone, and I was given a ticket.
This has got me thinking that it could be interesting to assess the manpower that goes into writing tickets for accidental Abalone infractions by people who are trying to follow the rules. If anyone thinks that 3-Ab-a-day, 24-Ab-a-year freedivers are the group we should put our effort into fining, I haven't heard from them. There are poachers on SCUBA taking thousands of Abs for years before being caught. I know the law enforcement agencies go after them, but I wonder if re-allocating some of their resources might get the real offenders caught faster. The way this deputy was clearly out to find an infraction to fit to our legal behavior made me think that he writes a lot of tickets.
Thanks for reading a long post. Be careful out there.

James Kealey
Oakland, CA