Part of our current problem is that we know so little about the natural condition of California. Even the grasslands are, for the most part, cloaked by introduced species, and the same can be said of the great estuary of San Francisco Bay. We really don't know much about the natural balance of otter and abalone. It's a powerful argument for the government to fund projects to inventory the current floras and faunas of all sorts of environments, so we can have a better chance of restoring them someday. As to abalone -- We do know that people like to eat abalone and that the decline in abalone has also occurred in places where the sea otter has not lived for a century. Millions of Californians have eaten abalone, but there are not millions of sea otters, and no sea otter collects more abalone than an individual can eat. Draw your own conclusions. Andrew K. Rindsberg Geological Survey of Alabama