Particularly attractive to ABALONE BUYERS is the fact
that the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch
program names California farmed abalone a “BEST
CHOICE” because it’s a HEALTHY, SUSTAINABLE pick.
October/November 2017 71
gets,” he says, selling live abalone to chefs,
retailers and consumers, who then do the
shucking and cleaning themselves.
Stemming from ongoing research
aimed at fine-tuning the farm, Monterey
Abalone began growing hard-to-collect
red algae to add to the brown kelp their
critters munch on in order to “enhance
flavor and appearance,” as Fay describes
it. After high-end chefs began asking to
purchase this seaweed, the farm started
collecting and growing several kinds of
algae, which it now sells along with seafood
obtained through fishing contacts:
California spiny lobsters, Kellet’s whelks,
sea cucumbers and giant red sea urchins.
DIVING FOR DOLLARS
While most ab lovers get their fix of the
delicious mollusk through the efforts of
the two local farms, diving for wild abalone
is a passionate pastime for many
Californians, whose coastline comprises
the main historic habitat for haliotis rufescens,
or red abalone. Despite the stringent
regulations in place to protect the fragile
wild population, diving for abalone is an
activity that, alas, officially requires no
experience and little equipment. With
scuba gear long outlawed, divers must
hold their breath to look for the mollusks,
primarily in the murky waters of Sonoma
and Mendocino counties because catching
abalone anywhere south of the Golden
Gate Bridge is prohibited.
Red abalone habitat extends down to
120 feet, so some snorkelers might be
attracted to diving deeper than practical.
Add to that the risks of shark attacks,
shallow water blackouts, riptides and underwater
entanglements in kelp forests
and it’s not surprising that seven or more
lifeless bodies of abalone divers are pulled
from the cold, restless water each year,
often floating in small coves with an abandoned
tube sometimes bobbing nearby.
Yet the throngs still come, with abalone
hunting not losing many fans despite the
obvious dangers.
Law-abiding citizens remove about
250,000 red abalone each year in California,
but they’re not the only ones
hunting for the luscious gastropods. At
least that many are stolen by poachers,
experts say, with these greedy thieves
prying out any variety of abalone—there
are seven in total in our state—they can
find, despite how desperately endangered
most varieties are.
Attempting to block the flow of illegally
hunted abalone, the California
Department of Fish and Wildlife runs an
undercover Special Operations Unit that
looks for poachers and sets up sting operations
after the mollusks have been pilfered.
Ab rustlers use outlawed scuba gear
and sneak to quiet corners of the long
California coastline to steal their prizes,
with plenty of buyers equally unbothered
by the effect of these crimes on the wild
habitats. But watching for thieves are
these game wardens—sometimes dressed
in camouflage and hiding on bluffs or in
trees while scanning the surf with binoculars—
who are specially trained not
just to find crooks but to potentially save
the lives of snorkel-using, inexperienced
licensed divers.
The wardens can set up checkpoints in
prime abalone territory along the coast,
examining each car for contraband. Often,
as cars approach the backup, filched abalone
are seen being flung out the windows
in desperate attempts to avoid detection.
Meanwhile, those criminals who have
escaped the authorities sometimes get
caught in stings run by the Special Operations
Unit, which sets up fake buys
and swarms the pilferers as they attempt
to deliver the illegal goods.
Given the street value of abalone,
thieves view the endangered creatures as
$100 bills lying on the sea floor. Insiders
like Tom Ebert report seeing large,
clearly bootleg wild abalone for sale in
Chinatown markets, a distressing sight.
“Given my background, that just turns
my stomach,” he says. “To poach animals
like that? That’s horrible. The poaching
destroys everything.”
The first commercial harvesting of wild
abalone in California took place in the
mid-1800s, and after scuba technology
was invented, divers could collect 2,000
or more abalone daily. Not surprisingly,
this so decimated the fishery that it was
finally closed in the ’90s. Today’s licensed
sport divers cannot legally remove any red
abalone less than seven inches in diameter,
which means the mollusk could be 10
years old or more. Abalone can live up
to 100 years and grow to more than 14
inches in diameter.
The two local abalone aquaculture operations
typically harvest abalone that are
3-½ to 4 inches, which delivers optimal
tenderness. The slow-growing nature of
abalone—when farmed, they add about
an inch per year—means that farmers
must be patient. Starting with a live abalone,
the edible portion is 40 to 45 percent
of its body weight, with four abalone
producing four small steaks that make
up a generous entree-size portion of 5 to
8 ounces. The cost per portion from the
local farms is $20 to $24.
The only crime when it comes to cooking
abalone—even the tender young
farmed variety—is to leave it on the heat
too long. But that’s not a problem for
skilled chefs like Le Papillon’s Cooper,
who has long been enchanted by the
flavor of this unusual sea snail. “It has
a wonderful of-the-sea flavor,” he says.
“It doesn’t taste like scallops. It’s its own
unique thing, which is why it’s interesting
and good to cook with because there isn’t
anything that tastes exactly like it.” n