I agree 99% with your statement Jim/Bobbie with the exception to the sea otters, they eat urchins, abalone, clams, crabs and
anything else they can crack open with a stone(basically in that order).
I once overheard a "person" at a shell show saying that the decline of the abalone was due to sea otters and that they should
be culled. Well the decline of the abalone is due to over-fishing  first , pollution second and disease third , all cause by
humans , maybe we should cull the humans . This would also cure the problem with the dwindling resources of fishes , tigers,
elephants, desert pupfish and the El segundo blue butterflies (sorry too late , extinct). so what is the solution? how about
the state stepping up to the plate and engage it's resources into aquaculture of abalone? let's leave the sea otter alone and
invest into better waste water treatment. Let's cull those who pour motor oil into the storm drain. Try and stop the endless
tide nuclear waste the FRENCH dump into the north Atlantic (well they do{mostly because the vast majority of their
electricity comes from nuclear [real cheap power once you have a place to put the waste]})!!!! so many places to put blame,
so few to actually take blame..... oh and this is not in anyway a comment directed at anyone say the French who really need
to stop dumping that plutonium 238 , it's real nasty breeder reactor excrement, I'm rather surprised Bob Ballard doesn't glow
in the dark after he spent so much time on the bottom of the Atlantic in them submersibles. ferret



 -----Original Message-----
From: Bobbi Cordy <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Saturday, April 22, 2000 12:30 PM
Subject: Abalone


|Hi all:
|
|We dove for abalone for years while we were in Caifornia.  Always taking
|only the limit size, and obeying the laws.    Some of the best eating
|there is...I knew all the Abalone recipes.
|
|We also watched the commercial abalone divers come in off Santa Barbara
|with their boats just piled high with abalone.  It doe stake about 5-7
|years for an abalone to mature to a good size.
|
|One law that was put into affect was protecting the Sea Otter.  The Sea
|Otter lives in abalone.   The Sea Otter population now is immense....and
|guess what they are thriving on?    AND it takes a "miracle" to get the
|protection law taken off of anything!
|
|Pollution definitely is a BIG part of the abalone situation.  AND I am
|sure it is the problem with Strombus gigas also.
|
|In the Bahamas (where we collect 5-6 times a year)  there is STILL
|Strombus gigas absolutely everywhere...and the Bahamians bring in boat
|loads of them every day and have done so for centuries.    The Bahamians
|also do not use a lot of chemicals....they don't renourish their
|beaches....everything is left natural (as God intended) even with the
|Hurricanes, storms, etc.
|
|Just had to get my TWO-CENTS in!
|
|Bobbi Cordy
|Merritt Island FL
|Astronaut Trail Shell Club
|