Coastal Areas : Abalone Protected for Another Five Years

A law against the taking of abalone along the coast between Dana Point and Palos Verdes Point, which applies to both sport and commercial fishermen and which was to have been lifted March 1, will remain in effect until 1992, a state Department of Fish and Game official said.

Department spokesman Pat Moore said the five-year period should give the popular shellfish time to restore its population along the coast of Orange and Los Angeles counties before the ban expires on Jan. 1, 1992.

Kristine Henderson, a marine biologist and member of the department’s abalone enhancement team, said the closure was first ordered in 1986 to protect what she called the “severely disrupted Southern California abalone beds.” It was to remain in effect only one year but was extended recently by the state Legislature.

The Legislature’s latest action, Henderson said, may have escaped the notice of some abalone fishermen, although it has been published in both the 1987 Sport Fishing Regulations brochure and the Digest of California Commercial Fish Laws booklet.

The red species of abalone is making a comeback, she said, but it is “not yet in sufficient numbers to sustain a harvest by either sport or commercial fishermen.” Other species, such as the pinks and greens, “remain hard to come by,” she said.

Violations of the ban is a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum fine of $1,000, one year in county jail and confiscation of all diving gear, including boats, used in illegally taking abalones, Henderson said.