Abalone Scouts

April 9, 2009

Question: Let’s say a free-diver who is looking for abalone and a scuba diver want to dive together. Would it be legal for the scuba diver to help the free-diver find abalone by marking locations so that the free-diver can more easily locate the abalone? I am assuming that the divers do not have scuba and abalone in the same boat. I think this is a breach of the spirit of the law and unsportsmanlike, but I don’t think it is covered specifically in the laws. (Anonymous)

Answer: It is not legal for scuba to be used in any manner in the pursuit or take of abalone. “Take means hunt, pursue, catch, capture, or kill, or attempt to hunt, pursue, catch, capture, or kill,” (FGC Section 86) and the use of scuba gear or surface-supplied air to take abalone is prohibited (CCR Title 14 Section 29.15[e]).

Thus, according to Department of Fish and Game (DFG) Lt. Dennis McKiver, this means a scuba diver may not assist another in the pursuit and take of abalone. If someone is using scuba gear to find (“hunt or pursue or attempt to hunt or pursue”) abalone and then marking those abalone with a physical buoy or Global Positioning System location so that a diver can more easily return to the location to take the abalone, this falls under the definition of “take.”

It doesn’t matter if the scuba diver is marking the location with a surface marker buoy, scuba air bubbles or is coming to the surface to point out the location to his free-diving buddy; it would all still fall under the definition of “take.” Scuba cannot be used to aid in the take of abalone in any way other than for the diver to come ashore and say, “Hey, I saw a lot of big abalone out there!”