The Diving Waltons. From left to right – Susan (Grandma), Lon (Son), Luke (Grandson), Natalie (Granddaughter) and Lee (Granddad).
As recently as 1997, almost the entire California Coast and the Channel Islands were fished for abalone. How did we get to the point where today less than 15% of the coast is available for abalone diving and more areas are being closed and limits reduced every year? What can be done to stop the closures and, at the same time, sustain the fishery?
The Abalone Recovery and Management Plan (ARMP)
In 1997 after long and contentious arbitrations among commercial fishermen, recreational fishermen, environmental groups and the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW), the Fish and Game Commission voted to close the entire commercial and recreational abalone fisheries south of San Francisco, while continuing to allow a free-diving recreational fishery north of San Francisco. Although the plan may be a useful tool for recovering the southern abalone fishery, it is not good for managing the existing fishery in Northern California. The plan requires abalone counts which are very expensive and time-consuming because they must be done by divers working on the sea floor. These methods make response times long and they do not collect information in the much larger areas outside of the currently counted 8 index sites.
Story submitted by Jack Likins
The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA)
Between 2007 and 2012, the Marine Life Protection Act was implemented. This law increased the area of State Marine Protected Areas (restricted fishing areas) from about 1% of ocean waters to over 16%. The MLPA, although well intentioned, will have a negative impact on the abalone fishery by forcing abalone fishermen into fewer, already over-fished areas without fishing restrictions. When you combine these closures with the overall lack of public coastal access, there is very little fishable area available to the abalone fishing public. A combination of restrictions created by the MLPA and management using the ARMP will cause public access areas to be serially closed to abalone fishing until the entire fishery is eventually closed.
Sea Otters
It is well known that we have an artificial abalone fishery on the North Coast because the otters were long ago hunted to near extinction. For the last 100 years humans have replaced the more efficient hunting otters as the abalones’ main predator, allowing abalones to grow larger in size and increase their numbers. Because of this, California’s North Coast has developed into a unique and iconic abalone fishery which has created numerous cottage industries. Many people, in addition to fishermen, depend on a sustainable abalone fishery.
Currently, otters are relegated to California’s Central Coast, mostly from Monterey to Point Conception. Otters consume 25% to 35% of their body weight every day eating shellfish. If they are allowed to expand their area, they will not only ruin the abalone fishery, but they will also take their tolls on the clam, urchin, crab and lobster fisheries statewide.
Otters are relatives of weasels and should be treated like the rodents that they are and not allowed to expand uncontrolled where they will negatively impact the ecologically sensitive North and South Coasts. Otters are cute making them a favorite of marine mammal groups, but they are extremely destructive. The questions are, where do we stop otter expansion and, do we want to give our fisheries to otters rather than manage them for people to enjoy and fish?
Poaching
Because of the black market for abalone and the lack of enforcement, poaching has become a major problem in the sustainability of the abalone fishery. DFW wardens estimate that poaching for illegal sale is about the same as the legal take, effectively doubling the reported annual consumption. If we are going to stop poaching we not only need more enforcement, but also the support of divers and pickers to report poaching.
Disease
A major factor in the demise of the southern abalone fishery was a virus called withering foot syndrome. The good news is that even though some red abalones have been found on the North Coast with the syndrome, it doesn’t seem to spread in colder water. At this point scientists don’t know for sure what causes the syndrome, but a good guess is pollution.
Pollution
There is a disconnect between the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) and the State Water Resource Board when it comes to responsibility for ocean pollution. On the North Coast the main pollution problem is run-off from farming and logging activities. Although there are laws to control these operations, there are many aspects of ocean pollution that are not completely understood or well controlled.
Recommended Solutions
The DFW has already recommended that the red abalone (the only fishable species) in Northern California be removed from the ARMP and put into a Fisheries Management Plan (FMP). What this means is that management and catch limits will be determined by actual catches, rather than very expensive and time consuming sea floor density surveys.
Because of the highly variable diving pressure from site to site and the natural density range of red abalones from south to north, it is recommended that the DFW also take into account a site specific or regional approach. For the past several years the DFW have been collecting actual catch data from 50+ abalone report card sites on the North Coast. I suggest using the available information to manage the abalone fishery on a site specific or regional basis rather than the current 8 index sites used to manage the entire fishery. Management by region would allow individual sites or regions to be opened, closed and limit controlled on a more timely basis. Those heavily dived public access sites could have lower limits without having to close them completely. If academic and environmental groups would support this action, they could fund and conduct density surveys to supplement the catch data, insuring that abalone fisheries remain healthy.
Abalone Fishermen’s Representation
We as abalone fishermen have a legislated direct voice in the abalone fishery management through the Recreational Abalone Advisory Committee (RAAC). It is disturbing that this committee has not published notes for the last 4 years as required by their own “standing rules”. Furthermore, there is a member who supposedly represents the North Coast but has not attended a meeting for the last 5 years.
If the RAAC will fulfill its responsibilities of representation and communication then we, as divers, have a means to become educated and give input to the DFW about our fishery. With 40,000 abalone report cards sold each year, we have a large and valuable resource that can be used to help manage our fishery. Let the RAAC and the DFW know what you think and what you are seeing out there when you pick and dive. If we want a future for abalone fishing we need to understand the issues and to speak up for our passion.
For more information contact Jack Likins at jacklikins@hotmail.com
Stories submitted to us by independent contributors reflect the opinions of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of CaliforniaDiver.com