Sunflower Stars, goodbye, I loved you so!

[MaxBottomtime]

It's a common story in the area. Organized poachers from the San Francisco area take hundreds of abalone from the Mendocino area and sell them to San Francisco restaurants or to overseas markets. Many are arrested but judges end up giving them small fines so they keep returning.

 

[lowviz]

@MaxBottomtime, I get my abalone at a decent price from Thai farms through my Asian market. It is OK, but nothing exciting. I like it enough to keep buying it.

So California Reds go for $125 a pound. Really? Abalone - Giovanni's Fish Market

Please comment...

 

[MaxBottomtime]

The Cayucos abalone are farmed. It costs more to raise them than taking them from the ocean. Recreational abalone hunting was closed last year and will be closed until at least 2021. Commercial abalone fishing is banned in California.

 

[aquacat8]

I console myself that nature is constantly changing and things do rebound and heal in surprising ways, and even if it takes millions of years after this pest species Homo sapiens is gone, biodiversity will probably return again and again before our planet is reunited with its star.

 

[aquacat8]

Perhaps even now a prehistoric virus is being freed from the ancient ice that is melting at our poles which will turn us, like the sunflower stars, into melted goo.

Earth's five mass extinction events

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

It's a common story in the area. Organized poachers from the San Francisco area take hundreds of abalone from the Mendocino area and sell them to San Francisco restaurants or to overseas markets. Many are arrested but judges end up giving them small fines so they keep returning.

It’s not always asians from the Bay Area doing the poaching, although from what I’ve seen when they bust them most of the names are asian. There have been many locals involved in poaching crimes on the North Coast who are part of larger poaching rings. They know the spots to go therefore they lead the “harvesting” part if the crime. A few of them were commercial urchin divers gone bad and turned into dirt bags. One of them was in possession of over 450 abalone hidden in the urchin boat. The North Coast is isolated and therefore more economically depressed than other parts of the state and abalone poaching is easy money.
Now there are hardly any abalone to be found anywhere. The last time I did a beach dive at Fort Ross I found a half dozen abalone laying upside down on the beach half dead. They all are right up on the beaches trying to find any scraps of kelp or seaweed that are in the shallows because they are starving to death. The tide comes up and the swell picks up and they end up washed up on the beaches to die. I went around and tossed them all back into the ocean.
Another one that really pissed me off. I was doing a dive at Gerstle Cove which is a preserve, nothing can be taken or disturbed. As I was unloading my gear at the bottom of the road down by the cove I look over and see about 6 freshly shucked abalone shells laying neatly in a pile. BASTARDS!!!!!
Some ignorant A-hole rock picked them in the cove and left the shells there. They probably didn’t read or speak english and didn’t know they were committing a crime. There are signs everywhere that tell you any take of anything is strictly prohibited. There were a ton of tourists that day all of whom looked like they were up from the city. I was the only diver there.

 

[lowviz]

I console myself that nature is constantly changing and things do rebound and heal in surprising ways, and even if it takes millions of years after this pest species Homo sapiens is gone ...//...

In my reality, sentient beings will continue to improve and continue to limit their own selfish actions.

We shall see.

 

[aquacat8]

So sorry to hear about gerstle cove being like that. I remember it full of bull kelp and I saw the most beautiful red cabezon there. I used to go with the ab divers but I did not take them, although my ex boyfriend did, but we would only take one, and we had an ab card, and not at Gerstle cove! I am sorry you have to see this sadness @Eric Sedletzky ... we must at least be grateful we got to see it before. Not much comfort I know.

 

[aquacat8]

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