Abalone Recovery Management Plan

Mr. Bill Bernard, an appointed member of the California Fish & Game Abalone Advisory Group, spoke to a packed room full of interested abalone divers on Wednesday evening December 12^th at Dolphin Dive Shop.

He shared in detail two topics discussed at the November 4^th meeting of the Recreational Abalone Advisory Commission, RAAC.  This commission will listen to what we have to say about these topics and will appreciate any input.

1. Opening up San Miguel Island for limited commercial abalone take.
2. Abalone tag verses punch card system.

 San Miguel Island

1. There are a small number of  commercial abalone permits issued. These permit holders have been prohibited from taking abalone in any areas of California but they are actively pushing to reopen an area around San Miguel Island in Southern California.

2.  Reopening this area to commercial take is premature considering the overall low population throughout the Southern California Channel Islands.

Have you ever wondered what the money we pay for the abalone punch cards is used for?

According the law fees received are deposited in the Abalone Restoration and Preservation Account within the Fish & Game Preservation Fund and used only for the Recreational Abalone Management Program.  This program includes:

1. Research (investigation, experimentation, monitoring, & analysis) and management (optimal sustainable utilization) of abalone and abalone habitat.  

2.  Acquisition of special equipment and the production and dissemination of printed materials for the enforcement of regulations.

3.  Preparation of the recovery and management plan by the commission and presentations of abalone related matters at conferences and educational institutions.

So why does this Recovery and Management Plan concern us?

Once this plan is adopted the Department of Fish & Game may apply to the RAAC to reopen sport or commercial abalone fishing and to close or establish no-take marine refuges in any area when deemed necessary to comply with the abalone management plan.

Are our punch cards used for anything?

Diver survey teams are called out to survey sites that have high use based on the punch cards we turn in.  Fish & Game biologists run abalone transit surveys every year to determine the number of abalone in a number of designated data collection sites that we dive: Casper, Van Damm, Point Arena, Salt Point, Ocean Cove, Fort Ross and Reef Campground, are all monitored for abalone in less than 10 feet of water (accessible to shore pickers) and also for abalone deeper than 28 feet (considered safe-out of reach).

What does all this mean to us?

Any site on our card can be closed if the survey data comes up with 2,500 abalone or less per two hectare acres (about 5 acres). This is about 1 abalone, of any size, per 84 square feet.  

What can we do to make sure all our favorite secret or not abalone spots stay open to us without restrictions or limitations? 

Dive between 10 ft and 28 ft in the sites listed on the punch cards.  Take your abalone from as many different depths and sites as possible instead of using the same site all the time.  Take abalone from dive sites in areas other than those surveyed in the above list.  Write to the RAAC:  We don't want the tag system (as in deer hunting tags). It’s a system of micromanagement, only so many tags would be sold per area and you would only be able to hunt in that one area that you have a tag for.  This will not stop poaching.  Poaching is a separate issue from abalone management.