California Extends Abalone Harvesting Ban Until 2036

KSBW ^ | Dec 12, 2025

[FlingWingFlyer]

Ah Baloney. It’s only Cauliphonya. The home of American Arson.

[Karliner]

The best is you have to mallet the meat until tenderized. I never understood thick abalone steaks which is what you got and that is sad. Too rubbery, worse than calamari steaks.

I’d rather eat an old shoe than thick abalone steaks.

[Karliner]

You got it, stack of shells, flies,ants and the rotted stench of sea life in the sun.

[NewHampshireDuo]

Supposedly it had been pounded. This was in the mid 1970s. Never been tempted to try it again.

[Fiji Hill]

I’m one of those boomers who remember prying those babies off rocks at low tide with a tire iron. They were ubiquitous, everywhere. Who could have thought there would be nothing left?

Same here. Then the sea otters wiped them out.

[Fiji Hill]

My uncle bought a home in Pacific Grove, a suburb of Monterey, in 1963. When I visited him in 1978, he told me that the sea otters had eaten all of the marine life along that stretch of the coast.

[Fiji Hill]

I remember in 1976, taking my soon to be wife out to dinner at Scoma’s Restaurant on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. We had full plates of wild caught garlic roasted Abalone for less than 20 bucks a plate. Now I wouldn’t even think of going to San Francisco.

When the Seafare restaurant opened in Whittier, Calif. in 1961 abalone was one of the cheaper items on the menu. By the end of the 60s it had disappeared from the menu, but the Seafare remained a popular place to get seafood until its owners closed it in 2014 in response to California's worsening climate for small businesses.

By the way, I will never again visit San Francisco.

[DAC21]

“When the Seafare restaurant opened in Whittier, Calif. in 1961....”

I grew up in Brea so I knew the Seafare Inn well. Actually I never ate there but passed it many times going to other locations along Whittier Blvd. I read in the local paper at the time that the owners said low interest rates killed interest income of the retired population that frequented the restaurant and that was that.

[Fiji Hill]

The Seafare Inn was owned by the Milhous family which moved to Whittier from Indiana in 1897. Their original house still stands, but in a different location from where it was originally built.

Gary Milhous, in a white button-down shirt and a tie with a fish design would often greet diners at the front door.

When its closure was announced, the place was packed during its last few days, and I was one of those eating there for the last time.

The building now houses an eatery specializing in pancakes. I only ate there once. The atmosphere has changed. When it was the Seafare Inn, it was quiet and cozy, with carpets to muffle the noise. But for some reason, young people today like to eat in restaurants that are loud, where you have to shout to converse with the diner across the table from you, and that is what the pancake place that replaced the Seafare is like today.

[Fiji Hill]

Give me Penobscot Bay scallops anytime

Those are probably better than the Far Eastern scallops we get here.

[GenXPolymath]

Not everything is a conspiracy.

“California has extended the ban on recreational red abalone harvesting in Northern California until April 1, 2036, due to environmental collapse of kelp forests from exploding purple sea urchin populations (due to sea star die-offs) and low abalone densities, preventing successful reproduction, “

“Kelp Forest Collapse: A marine heatwave and sea star wasting disease decimated sunflower sea stars (urchin predators), causing purple urchin populations to explode and devour essential kelp forests.
Low Abalone Density: The lack of kelp, their food, and low densities (due to past overfishing and environmental stress) prevent abalone from finding mates and reproducing effectively.
Environmental Stressors: Marine heatwaves (2014-2016) and El Niño events further stressed populations. “

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/why-seafood-delicacy-banned-harvest-172019212.html

So El Nino and a virus wipe out the main predator of urchins who can eat multiple times their body weight per day in kelp. Those urchins strip mine the kelp forests that the abalone need to eat too and cause a population collapse. Not some big government conspiracy just environmental factors and it’s recreational harvest that’s closed so sport divers big woop in the long run. 2036 is only ten years after the next population report is due that’s why it is 2036 not 2035.

Commercial Ban: Commercial abalone fishing ended in the late 1990s (around 1997) for most species due to overharvesting.

All commercial supply is via aquaculture production which is also being used to restock the wild kelp beds that still survive.

I was stationed in San Diego would go North to Monterey Bay to fish and dive in the 90s all the time, even back then there was not abalone all over like the old salt Marines would tell us about. It’s little wonder the commercial abalone harvest was stopped in the late 90s.

[RitchieAprile]

Uni consumption should be encouraged.

[BBB333]

“...and have already destroyed Oregon and Washington...”

These folks destroyed themselves. I watched it happen for many years in Oregon, then I moved back to where I was born, Montana.

It was difficult raising parents correctly back then during those difficult times but I eventually made it back home.

[Preachin']

I have never heard of him, but he seems to have been living life for all he could get out if it.

[KC_for_Freedom]

Cool picture, never saw a lobster in my the wild. We had a gang of divers and ended the day with a happy feed. Some of our group were spear users so we had Ling Cod too. Thanks for the post.