Okay, so I used a little subterfuge to get you to read this post. No, I'm not talking about a dead great white shark in our waters. That would be sad, of course. However, this is something even worse.
For 4+ years Ruth Harris has been monitoring a white abalone (Haliotis sorenseni) she discovered right in the Casino Point Dive Park. Over the years I've been fortunate enough to film it on a number of occasions.
On Tuesday Ruth and I did a dive to check on it. She had seen it three days before and it was quite healthy with some of its favorite munchies growing nearby. When we got to the location, I was distracted filming a sheep crab on the other side. When I looked to see the abalone, all I saw was Ruth holding fragments of its shell and the empty "scar" on the rock where it used to sit.
For those of you who don't know, the white abalone is one of the rarest species in our waters. In fact, some think that this may have been the only one left in the wild. I don't share that belief, but have no evidence to the contrary.
Ruth had tried to get the appropriate state and federal agencies to relocate this abalone so it could contribute to the lab-based reproduction of the species. Unfortunately way too much bureaucratic red tape got in the way.
I have no idea what might have crushed the shell and removed the ab itself. Although we've had evidence of abalone poaching in the dive park (grrr), I don't think this was a case of human take. I am curious as to what critter might have crushed the shell with such force and taken the ab though.
I'm sharing a few of the many stills I've extracted from the video footage I've taken of this species.
For 4+ years Ruth Harris has been monitoring a white abalone (Haliotis sorenseni) she discovered right in the Casino Point Dive Park. Over the years I've been fortunate enough to film it on a number of occasions.
On Tuesday Ruth and I did a dive to check on it. She had seen it three days before and it was quite healthy with some of its favorite munchies growing nearby. When we got to the location, I was distracted filming a sheep crab on the other side. When I looked to see the abalone, all I saw was Ruth holding fragments of its shell and the empty "scar" on the rock where it used to sit.
For those of you who don't know, the white abalone is one of the rarest species in our waters. In fact, some think that this may have been the only one left in the wild. I don't share that belief, but have no evidence to the contrary.
Ruth had tried to get the appropriate state and federal agencies to relocate this abalone so it could contribute to the lab-based reproduction of the species. Unfortunately way too much bureaucratic red tape got in the way.
I have no idea what might have crushed the shell and removed the ab itself. Although we've had evidence of abalone poaching in the dive park (grrr), I don't think this was a case of human take. I am curious as to what critter might have crushed the shell with such force and taken the ab though.
I'm sharing a few of the many stills I've extracted from the video footage I've taken of this species.
Attachments
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abalone white 2014-12-10-as.jpg -
abalone white 2014-12-18-as.jpg -
abalone white 2015-02-01-bs.jpg -
abalone white feeding on Agarum 2014-02-21 NITE-as.jpg -
abalone white scar 2016-04-11-as.jpg -
abalone white shell fragment 2016-04-11-as.jpg -
abalone white turned over 2014-12-14-ks.jpg -
abalone white turned over 2014-12-14-ps.jpg -
abalone white turned over tongue 2014-12-14-ds.jpg -
abalone white turned over with shrimp 2014-12-14-bs.jpg
