Handing Off Abalone

September 11, 2014

Question: Can two people be in a boat (both with licenses) with one person diving and handing abalone to the other person on the boat? (Janet R.)

Answer: No. Abalone may not be passed to another person until they are tagged and recorded on the abalone report card. “Cardholders … shall not transfer any abalone from his or her immediate possession unless they are first tagged and recorded on the report card” (CCR Title 14, section 29.16(b)(1)). After they are tagged and recorded, the diver can give his or her daily bag limit of abalone to the other person, but the diver cannot take any more abalone that day.

That's ridiculous.  What if I am handing my catch up so I can climb in the boat?  Are they saying that if another person holds your abalone that it is a transfer of possession? 

That's ridiculous.  What if I am handing my catch up so I can climb in the boat?  Are they saying that if another person holds your abalone that it is a transfer of possession?

They're pretty plain on that: "Abalone may not be passed to another person until they are tagged and recorded on the abalone report card."

it gets even crazier than that when you are diving with someone, you cannot commingle Abs with another divers ABs.

it gets even crazier than that when you are diving with someone, you cannot commingle Abs with another divers ABs.

Yep. Last time I shore dove for abs my young buddy Jesse didn't have a tube or board so we shared mine...but made to sure to bring two different goodie bags so that way his could go in one and mine in the other...

Turned out he didn't get any abs, and I only got one so it wasn't a big deal.

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

it gets even crazier than that when you are diving with someone, you cannot commingle Abs with another divers ABs.

Yep. Last time I shore dove for abs my young buddy Jesse didn't have a tube or board so we shared mine...but made to sure to bring two different goodie bags so that way his could go in one and mine in the other...

Turned out he didn't get any abs, and I only got one so it wasn't a big deal.

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Dude....I wouldn't even do that

it gets even crazier than that when you are diving with someone, you cannot commingle Abs with another divers ABs.

Yep. Last time I shore dove for abs my young buddy Jesse didn't have a tube or board so we shared mine...but made to sure to bring two different goodie bags so that way his could go in one and mine in the other...

Turned out he didn't get any abs, and I only got one so it wasn't a big deal.

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Dude....I wouldn't even do that

LOL! Yeah, I wouldn't have if he had a tube or a board...but since there were two seperate bags (one green, one yellow) there would have been no chance for "comingling"...

I told him if he got any abs we would have to swim in together at the same time...which would have been actually pretty hard to do given the difficult exit spot... 

Like I said, unfortunately it turned out not to be an issue...I just got the one ab and he just shot one fish. 

You can see the two goodie bags attached to my board in this little vid:



One more reason why I prefer yak diving to shore diving...don't gotta worry about that crap!

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

The truth comes out about "Peter's" 11 1/4. We were diving the shallows straight out from Van Damme. I pulled it, we passed it back and forth a few times measuring it over and over. He put it in my kayak for me. Once I realized the legal entanglement we had entered, I insisted that he paddle my kayak to shore, and land the monster himself. The rest is (altered) history.

I understand completely that you can't give someone an ab, you know, pop it for them.  But if I'm not transferring possession it's absurd.  If there are two divers and two limits and one boat, one guy holds the floats while one climbs in the boat.  Then the guy in the water passes the floats with the limits one at a time to the man in the boat.  By the letter of the law the man in the water is over limit and the man in the boat has given a limit away without tagging it.  Then the man in the boat is over limit and the man in the water has given an untagged limit away.  Now when they pull in to shore the whole scene reverses itself as one guy gets out  and the passes the ab to the man on the dock. 

I can't imagine any non-douchebag warden writing that citation or any judge upholding it.  Who writes these dumb ass regulations?

it gets even crazier than that when you are diving with someone, you cannot commingle Abs with another divers ABs.

Many years before tagging two buddies put their limits in one five gallon bucket to climb up a hill. I told them it was illegal but they scoffed at me. Well, they were met by DFG right at the road. The officers first words were..."who gest the BIG ticket"!!   No one was cited but it could have been a nasty fine.