> Dear Tom and other Haliotisites (isms?);-
>         I used to live on Catalina Island. I once saw well over 100 Abs at
one
> place. They were all the same species. Does that count? It was a
> restaurant.
>         Anon


Art,

It counts, but it is a sight that is now a rare one.  The last issue of "The
Capsule," the newsletter of The Astronaut Shell Club of the Space Coast (and
I thought our club had a long name) had an article reprinted from the LA
Times by staff writer Eric Bailey.  The article recounted the huge abalone
poaching problem they are experiencing in California.  Abalone in California
went from an annual harvest of over 5 million tons to a collecting ban in
1997.  The ban prohibits all abalone collection from San Francisco to the
Mexican border.  North of this area, only sports collecting is allowed.
Sports divers can take four per diver per day for personal consumption --
yeah, right.  What has resulted is lots of people using lots of different
ruses to collect way over the limit.  With no commercial operations left, a
typical abalone fetching around $80, and lots of restaurants willing to buy
any and all abalone offered -- the situation is ripe for poaching and black
market operations.  Wildlife officials estimate a poacher can easily earn
$100,000 tax free a year.

Of course, collection of abalones is primarily blamed for their decline and
admittedly, 5 million tons a year is a heck of a lot of abalone.  There have
also been disease problems and ever increasing numbers of sea otters who are
particularly fond of abalone.  The article did not mention human population
growth and associated development and decline in water quality, but I'll
take a bet you could add these to the top of the list of problems.

Just thought I would add to the abalone discussion.  Thanks to Doris
Underwood, editor of "The Capsule" for reprinting this timely article.

Tom Eichhorst in New Mexico, USA