Our First Abalone Dive

Last weekend we traveled up the coast to Fort Bragg for some camping and abalone diving. Abalone is a mollusc that was nearly fished out from the California coast 20 years ago. The populations are slowly recovering, but have not reached a level for commercial fishing to resume. You can buy an abalone license and go freediving (or breath-hold diving) for them, granted you limit yourself to 3 per day and take only animals that are 7 inches or larger. Using SCUBA to harvest abalone is much easier than freediving, but will get you in big trouble. Since these animals are such a popular delicacy this is typically how they are poached. In fact, a few weeks ago a restaurant owner died while SCUBA diving for abalone at night in 18-foot swells. Duh! Give that man a Darwin award!

We've never tried freediving and thought it would be a breeze: take a deep breath, dive, and pop those suckers up with our regulation abalone pry-bar. Little did we know! With us on our trip was Jesse and his astrophysics cohort - Dave, Katrina, and Matt. We set up camp and then scouted about the Fort Bragg area for a sheltered cove. Turns out Van Damme beach is a local hot spot, and indeed once we arrived we saw a couple dozen wetsuits in the water. Once we got in and did a few practice dives, it became clear that there were dozens of very large abalone below. Woo-hoo, not all picked over as we had feared!

And yet, two hours later we hadn't bagged a single abalone. Turns out there are several challenging things about the process... Most of the animals were 15 ft or deeper, and the water was murky enough that you couldn't see them from the surface. So, we typically had to dive once to locate an animal and a second time to attempt to pry it up. In between the two dives it was very easy to drift and lose your target, especially if it was under an overhanging rock. The greatest challenge, however, was getting the pry bar under them before they reflexively clamped. Once they clamp down, you can brace your feet on the bottom and pry with all your strength, and they still won't budge!

We were nearly ready to dry off and try again next season, when Jesse triumphantly held up one of the little monsters. He and Matt had worked on the thing for 15 minutes and ultimately tired it out, I guess. They were able to bag another one after that, at which point we headed to the North Coast Brewing Company for a celebratory beverage. Back at camp, we started a fire while Jesse and Scott wrangled the slimy suckers out of their shells using large spoons. They look utterly unappetizing until you clean the guts off and slice them into steaks. Their meat is a uniform off-white color, with a texture like ahi. It was delicious raw, or even better, roasted with some garlic and butter. Tasted a lot like - I hate to say it - chicken, but it was kind of a creamy chicken flavor. Next year, I'm bringing some sushi rice and wasabi!

Below are some pictures of Russian Gulch State Park, an endangered Banana Slug (distant relative of the abalone, perhaps?), Jesse with his catch, an empty shell I found, Scott getting an abalone to release his spoon, steaks a-roasting, and standing around the campfire.