My buddy bailed out on me Friday night, but the conditions were so good, I had to find a way to get in the water. I've owned Bruce Watkins' A Diver's Guide to Northern California since it came out in 2000, and recently plotted the sites from the book on Google Maps. In a short, incorrectly-formatted paragraph near the end of the book he describes a spot in Southern Point Reyes where there are allegedly "mean" near-shore abs. I talked my kids into coming along and we were hiking down the beach by 9 A.M.
We'd made an exploratory excursion earlier this year before the season opened, so I knew where to park and how to hike down the trail to the beach. It's generally as Bruce says in his book, though that little trail is somewhat washed-out, covered in poison oak, and there's a scramble near the end not for the faint-of-heart. Incidentally, you can park at the big lot at the end of the road, and hike a nearly-flat (though much longer) trail to the beach. Having never dove here before, I was going almost entirely on Bruce's description, though there was one bit that had me confused: He states that the hike from the car to the beach is about 1/3 mile (which I believe it is) and that the hike from the beach to "Abalone Point" is another 1/3 mile (which it is not.)
Abalone Point is, technically-speaking, the not-very-distinct point to the south of double point, but that is a lot farther than 1/3 mile from where you step onto the beach, and, since it wasn't yet low-tide, there were some big rocks we'd have to wade around to get to Abalone Point proper. I bet it's about 1.5 miles to the actual point from where the trail meets the beach, and I'm thinking Bruce means the tiny bump about 1/3 mile from the end of the trail.
In the end, we hiked a lot more than I think we needed to. Gonna chalk that one up to "learning experience." In the water, I was having a hard time finding the right place, and was signaling the kids to follow as I drifted south from where I got in. For about 40 minutes I didn't see even one abalone. Not even a little one. Then, as I was ready to pack it in and concede defeat, I figured something out and quickly popped a couple 8-inchers before heading in.
Next time I have a much better idea of where to start, but if someone experienced would like to show me the ropes here, I'd be forever grateful. Any takers?
[Edit: Not] Withering Syndrome
Here they are. The shells are nearly the same size, and in the water I didn't really notice anything special about either one. Quick measure of the shell and into the game bag. It was when tagging them that it became obvious that something was up with that one on the left above.
He has a gnarly "wound" there on the rim of the shell, and overall the shell is really thick and oddly-shaped. It's probably 2-3 times the normal thickness for a red abalone, and very "worn." By comparison, the other ab has a typical, attractive shell with nearly the same outside dimensions. I thought, "maybe, the odd one was just really old but never got very big," until I popped him from his shell.
It was immediately obvious that this wasn't just an unusual growth pattern. The gonad and gut were way too small for an abalone of his size, though the foot attachment seemed large. Feeling the gut, the whole thing seemed to be full of rocks, so I cut it open and removed a pile of hard bubbles [Edit: these were hard, solid "beads" that were filled with fluid]:
Maybe it was just a funky, geriatric abalone, with a bad case of indigestion, but somehow I doubt it. Anyone knowledgeable care to comment? [Edit: the pros say no, just a geriatric abalone.]
I would have to agree it is withering foot, butr I would contact Buzz owen and send him some pics he is the worlds most knowaglbel when it comes to abalone here is his email
ReplyDeletebuzabman@mcn.org tell him matt mattison told you to ask him.