Haliotus spp.

[El Dude]

Any body find Abalone reliably? Up here in Norcal we find red abalone everywhere. After a while they get boring, like oh there's another...and another...and look that one is hitching a ride on the bigger one. When I lived on Catalina I could find greens and pinks pretty reliably. But I have only found one green on the mainland, OC. I'm an abalone enthusiast, I don't really care too much for the meat, after last season I got burned out. I'm trying to find/photograph abalone up and down the coast. Any thoughts you'd like to share?

I AM NOT FISHING FOR SPOTS TO POACH!!!!!!! DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT POST SPECIFICS ABOUT WHERE YOU FIND ABALONE!!!!! The last thing I want on my conscience is knowing I helped some lame-o poacher scout-out abalone!

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I found a pink at Marineland in 1995. It was about the size of a half dollar. I feed it a kelp frond each time I dive there. It's now about 8". Last year Merry found another pink the size of a quarter way out in the sand. We carried it back to my pet Abby. The next day it found a hole in the rock to live in, but we haven't seen the baby since. There is plenty of kelp there, so hopefully it's alive and well.
We sometimes dive an offshore reef near Long Beach that's covered in red abalone. I also found a large green at White Point several years ago, but abalone are now few and far between in Palos Verdes. In the 1970s they could be found in every tidepool.

 

[Teamcasa]

The pinks are still pretty hard to find but if you are patient and go slow enough you will see one or two are still around.

 

[fnfalman]

I don't know if they're black, pink, green, but there are a few big'uns around the Quarry area of Catalina.

 

[El Dude]

Yup. The quarry is one of those sites I would lead tours through many times a week if I wasn't boat DM, when I lived/worked on island time. I was there so much I started naming the abs. I still remember Norm the Pink...ahh memories. Have you ever climbed the crane and jumped off? I did it once after I untied the stearn line. Not one of those things I'd ever do again, but I sure am glad I did it.

 

[drbill]

The OP suggested that we NOT identify the locations where we find abalone.

I have counted as many as 13 abalone (mostly greens, but a few pinks) in a commonly dived site on Catalina. Poachers apparently have pulled at least three of them. I know of another site where I stopped counting at 125 in one small area... no way I'd reveal that location except to Fish & Game (which I did years back).

I remember in the late 60s and 70s being able to watch a low intertidal ab grow for several years before I'd harvest it for dinner. Abs were stacked on top of one another even then. I stopped taking anything in 1975.

 

[White Knight]

Western (ocean side) of San Miguel Island is packed tight with Abs. It's a long way from home, but it is well worth the occasional outing. Also, I find that the more White Sharks there are, the more ABs there are.......Look for the big sharks and you'll find the Abs!