Fish and Game cuts sport fishing take to three a day,
24 a year in Northern California

December 8, 2001

By PAUL PAYNE THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

LONG BEACH -- New sport fishing rules adopted Friday by state Fish and Game commissioners reduce by more than 40 percent the number of red abalone that may be taken by hunters in Northern California.

The new rules, created to prevent overfishing, limit catches to three a day and 24 a year.

That's a reduction from four a day and 100 a year permitted during the seven-month abalone season. The length of the season remains the same.

The decision was considered a compromise to a Fish and Game committee's proposal to limit abalone hunting to two a day and 30 a year.

Fish and Game biologist Konstantin Karpov said the tighter limits will help replenish the North Coast's stock of young abalone, which has been hurt by environmental conditions such as water temperature and adverse currents as well as poaching.

"We've been treating our marine resources as inexhaustible," Commissioner Sam Schuchat said. "Now we're in a period of history where we realize it's not the case."

Abalone is a delicacy in seafood-loving circles and the 7-inch mollusks can fetch up to $100 each on the black market, which has made poaching attractive and kept game wardens busy.

Some breeds are on the endangered species list and others, such as the white abalone, will be listed soon, officials at the Department of Fish and Game said.

Abalone used to be abundant along the coast of California. But a combination of overfishing, El Niño seasons, and the animal's slow breeding and maturation patterns have depressed its population.

A 1997 state law prohibits all sport diving for abalone south of the Golden Gate, and the commercial harvesting of abalone is prohibited altogether. Every year, dozens of poachers are arrested selling more than the maximum take per day to restaurants, mostly in the Bay Area.

Officials said the ban on commercial fishing has increased abalone take in Sonoma and Mendocino counties by more than 25 percent.

Harold Hoogasian of San Francisco, who makes regular forays to the North Coast to dive for abalone, was the only hunter in attendance at the meeting. He said cutting the daily harvest to three a day is an extreme measure based on incomplete data. But he said the compromise is better than the alternative.

"I don't think (the problem) is as compelling as the charts make it look," Hoogasian said. "I really think poachers are the biggest problem."

Gene Kramer, a diver from the East Bay who serves as executive director of the Abalone and Marine Resources Council, said he doesn't see the need for a change or compromise. He said divers along the North Coast continue to see an abundance of abalone there.

"I just keep thinking something is wrong with the survey data," he said. Of more concern, he said, are data showing a decrease in the number of young abalone.

"If they (Fish and Game) are right and I'm wrong, clearly they're headed in the right direction," he said. "But I think it's too soon to have that drastic of a cut."

The commission also voted to require that abalone report cards be returned to the department within 20 days of the end of the season, rather than at year's end. Failure to return the cards is a misdemeanor, but the department has had difficulty enforcing the law.

Fish and Game officials said only a quarter of the state's approximately 40,000 licensed abalone hunters return their punch cards -- which show how many abalone they've caught each year -- to the department. Officials rely on the returned punch cards to learn how many abalone are actually being taken each season. The department hopes to begin using an automated system in about two years that will solve the problem, Karpov said.

The commission also limited the daily take of surf perch from 10 to five fish, and it put tighter restrictions on the fishing of lingcod and rockfish.