Missing Abs?

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20091021/ARTICLES/910219957/1350?Title=Officials-still-trying-to-solve-abalone-diver-mystery

Poachers??? 

Poachers??? 

Was wondering the same thing after reading about this previously...

I remember being on the coast diving for abalone one day around 15 years ago. It was windy as hell. On our way back we stopped at a vista by Fisk Mill and walked out to the bluiff. There we saw in the distance someone chasing thier float tube as it was being blown out to sea. This dude kept after it way longer than he thought, when all of a sudden he looks up , sees how far out he is now, and says Fuck this. Leaves his tube to float away and gets his ass back to shore. I was thinking, Jesus christ man how far are you going to go. Then he turned around. Anyway it could have been something like that. Hopefully. Craig

I lost a tube once.  No abs in it, but a pair of fins went with it.  We were rockpicking at Shelter Cove and it was pretty rough.  I'd brought the tube out for my then girlfriend to hang onto, but she was just picking around in the seaweedy rocks.  Next thing I know the tube is outside in the breakers.  I quickly called to my buddy who also had a tube with some fins in it.  I was really close to putting on his fins and going after my tube, but I wisely changed my mind - it would've been a bad scene...

That's likely what happened in this story.