answer to urchin plague?

LilRiverMan, I have to respectfully disagree about bringing otters back. I know there are abalone in Monterey and I've dove at Hopkins. But you definitely don't see the fat ass 7", 8", 9" abs practically everywhere like up north used to be. In fact, I don't think I've seen a legal ab in Monterey. So even if they are only 5% to 8% of a current otter's diet, that's probably because the smalls tucked way back aren't plentiful and are hard for otters to get. Why wouldn't they gorge first on giant, meaty abs if re-introduced up north.
The other big factor is that although up north was obviously part of otter's original territory, we divers have been super lucky not to be competing with them for a long time and if they got re-introduced, our voices, if the experiment ended up hammering the legal size abalone population, wouldn't necessarily prevail in a decision about removing otters. They are just about the cutest critter out there, and can't you imagine other segments of the public strongly opposing any otter removal or cull proposed by divers? I think we'd lose that debate for sure!