Ab shells vs meat...

Do any of you ab divers ever notice patterns between the condition of an abalone shell and the amount of meat inside? Do the healthier shells produce a fatter, meatier foot?

I ate my last ab from the season yesterday. It was a 9 with a porous, very light-weight shell, and the foot was on the small side. On the other hand, I've had 8-inchers with healthy shells and solid slabs of meat.

I'm wondering if it's possible to select meatier abs while diving just by examining the shell before you pop it off the rock.

Hey m2 -

The larger abs don't necessarily produce the most or best meat.  In my experience, the big old beasts stuffed into some hard to get at crack, with lots of wormholes on their thick, white-ish shells produce the worst meat.  Not only amount, but quality.

The ones I call "free-range" abs, which are generally found on open shelves with abundant kelp resources around are always better in meat/size ratio and quality.  They are generally younger than the old growth abs, and their shell are characteristically very red and comparatively thin, showing few signs of worm parasitism.

If you're into show, go for the old-growth, but the 8.5-9.5" younger fast growing abs are better eating.  The old guys often have that gray meat thing going on.  It's not harmful to eat, but the pearly white meat guys eat way better.

Cool, good to know. April 1st is only right around the corner!

I pretty much agree with what you guys are saying.   

On my last dive this year after I had my 3 I came accross one that was about 8.5 and the thing was so fat it couldn't clamp down to a rock to protect itself.  I tapped it a few times and watched it try, but in the end it still had about an inch and a half of body showing between the shell and it's rock, one fat ab, safe for the winter. maybe safe forever as it was in Horseshoe Cove.

So yeah bigger ab more meat as a rule, but occasionally I do find a really sick shell and the meat is small and or dark,  I have also found healthy fat abs that have pretty dark meat and in those cases I don't seem to find a difference in flavor or texture.

I generally shop for meat...not shells.  I like the 8.5 with a shell that looks like an undersized hat on a pile of dinner.

I generally shop for meat...not shells.  I like the 8.5 with a shell that looks like an undersized hat on a pile of dinner.

I swim around behind Sean and pick all the big, old, gross ones that he doesn't want!   

Good topic, Andrew.  I'll have much more feedback on this later - with photos of some odd specimens.   

...not that I wouldn't mind a few helmets for keepsakes.

I read in the book between the pacific tides, That a healthy abalone will have a smooth shallow shell No worm holes. I am sure you have seen these shells if you are an ab diver that has been around for awhile. On the other hand it describes an unhealthy abalone as having a humped shell or as some people say a really deep ab. Not a healthy ab as those shells are infested with snails and worms. The reason they grow humpy is overcrowding and sharing a food supply with too many others.

Craig, how were those two you got on your last day, the 10 and the 9? The 10" shell you showed had some gnarly bore holes...

Very unhealhty I think. Huge abs no doubt but not great meat. It was reddish in color and small for the size of the shell. The 101/4 I got 20 years ago at the south point of stump beach was in 20ft of water and I remember it as being a beautiful healthy abalone. The steaks that came from that covered a 12" dinner plate. Awesome , just awesome. All due to population and food supply.

I'll have much more feedback on this later - with photos of some odd specimens.  

I see the two main parasitic threats to abalone shells as sponge and boring clams - my Google just now in my thought to be sure I'm not totally FOS instantly turned this up:  Boring sponges (Cliona celata) often inhabit the older portions of the shell. The small boring clam Penitella conradi may bore into the shell from the outside, causing the abalone to secrete an extra blister of nacre inside to keep the clam from bursting through.

Anyway, they can survive and be very tender and tasty with lots of clams boring through and a ton of the sponge covering the entire huge old shell.  The ones I've gotten that were funky tasting or extra tough tended to be old ones, but I got plenty of other old ones around them that were really tasty.  I've had a very hard time correlating the taste or inability to tenderize a particular ab to its location or the conditions it lived under, but I'd say a totally sponge-covered ab would more likely have a meat that would be funky colored or tough.  That is to say - I've seen and picked nice big healthy ones right up next to sponge covered funky-meated ones, AND I've picked sponge-covered super tasty ones!   

I put more than even usual description in my photo file names here - I need to start hosting my photos elsewhere I guess so I can have regular text between them.   

Thanks for setting me up for a fun threadjack, Andrew!   

Regarding unique specimens...   

I'll take anything I can get my hands on for the most part.

Here are some pics of two double clickers I had made up a few years back.

Jack

This limit of small 9's yeilded more meat than any others I have ever gotten, but are not the biggest shells...

Wow, that 9 on the far right has some thick spare tire spilling out! Thanks for the info, guys...