Watching a newsreel on TCM. I don’t know when it was made, but it shows a group of guys with longboards. They’re lifeguards who went south after the summer. They’re on a beach somewhere and they’re a little penguin. One shot looked suspiciously like one of the Channel Islands (I think that’s where it is – an arch that was used in Robin Williams’s Popeye), and the underwater footage was taken in an aquarium.
They showed a guy pulling a large abalone off of a rock. A couple of guys brought up two huge Pacific spiny lobsters (the kind without claws) and showed the lobsters’ sharp and dangerous tail spines.
My mom told me that when she was young and lived in Santa Ana, people would wade out into the Pacific Ocean and grab some lobsters and pry abalones off of the rocks near the shore. You can’t do that nowadays. When I was a kid mom had a boyfriend with a Mooney. They flew it down to Punta Final (IIRC correctly) in Baja. When they came back they had lobsters and abalones. This was back in the '70s and even then it was hard to get abalones. The local fishermen in Baja told them that 100% of their catch was sent to Japan, and they were loth to sell them any. I can’t tell you how good that abalone was. (And the lobster as well.) The last time I had lobster was in the late-'70s. Dad took us out to The Desert Inn in Lancaster. I still remember how good it was. It’s been almost three decades since I’ve had an abalone steak!
I fried making faux abalone once, by pounding out a calamari steak. Just wasn’t the same. It tasted like calamari. Nothing wrong with that, but I wanted to taste a nice gastropod steak!
If I still lived in SoCal I might be able to dive in the Channel Islands for the delectable shellfish. At least when I learned to dive in the '80s it was legal. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear they were protected now. Someday though, they’ll be available again…
I don’t know how old this is but I found an abalone page that gives a lot of information. I think some species are now protected, I don’t know which ones.
You do know, you are an evil man for reminding me of this delectable taste now so hard to find. :rolleyes:
Looks like April 1997. They mentioned abalone in British Columbia. I think I heard abalone fishing was closed up there; but I should see if I can find a fishmonger up there to see if they have any. (I suspect it will be too expensive to buy, but I can at least look!)
When I lived in L.A. the corner market had red tins of ‘abalone type shellfish’. I never tried it.
I have friends who dove near La Bufadora (spelling?) and brought up abalone. This was in the last ten years.
When I worked for PADI Headquarters (late 80’s to mid-90’s), there was one day every year when it seemed like the whole office called in “lobster.” Not sick, lobster. Opening day of lobster season, at least half our staff went over the side at midnight!
Back in the 60s my fmily would camp at a state beach campground. I have pulled abs off of the rocks at low tide, and used to get them free diving in about 25 feet of water. This was back when I was on the swim team and could hold my breath for over 2 minutes. These were big ones too 11"-12" reds. Slice 'em pound the shit out of them cracker crumbs and butter in a fry pan. Good eats.
You can still get abs on the coast of Mendocino and Humboldt.
From the California Department of Fish and Game website
The last time I had some was over 10 years ago. I’d taken a bunch of college friends home to Southern Humboldt with me to hike up King Peak. One of the group had a cast on his leg so he decided to waterproof it and go diving for abalone with his girlfriend near Shelter Cove while the rest of us went hiking.
There are few experiences in this world better than a meal of fresh garlic and breadcrumb sauteed abalone after a long day of hiking.
With conservation efforts and common decency (like respecting limits), I think there is still hope for abalone.
A bit earlier, when I was still in high school, I worked as a Summer Recreation Counselor. An annual event was taking the kids camping at Bear Harbour on the coast of the Sinkyone Wilderness. A cherished memory of mine was diffusing a rapidly escalating sand fight while watching one of the adult chaperones verbally eviscerate some scuba diving poachers. These three guys had popped up out of the water in their gear, each carrying fat sacks loaded with 20-30 abalone each.
Mrs. Etter was the last person these guys wanted to encounter at this particular moment. 5’2" and 100% abalone-loving-environmentally-conscious-uber-hippy…she singlehandedly chased them off, wading out into the Pacific in her jeans, spewing curses at them that would make a sailor weep and suck his thumb.
I like to think that they saw the error of their ways and returned all but 3 abs each, but more than likely they just came ashore out of sight around the next point. Even in that case, some satisfaction could be found in that they would’ve had a tough time getting their poached booty and their scuba gear back to the car anywhere else but where they’d been chased away.
One last parting anecdote…
The only time in my life that I’ve heard of folks being able to walk out onto the tidal rocks and pick up abalone was after the series of large quakes in Humboldt and Mendocino in 1992, due to the uplift in the Triple Junction area.
A friend of the family has a cabin on the Lost Coast. After the quake and the uplift, so much marine life was lifted out of the water and exposed to the sun, that the stench traveled for miles and miles. John put on is hip waiters and trudged out on the tidal rocks as far as he could go and started throwing abalone, starfish, and anything else he could get his hands on back out into the surf like frisbees, crying the whole time.
You sure can. And Sonoma. There’s usually a diver diver death or two every year. Very sad.
I had some for the first time last month. A co-worker gave me some her husband had gone out diving for. I thought it was pretty tasty. Nothing spectacular, but pretty good. Certainly nothing to get myself killed over.
