Abalone & Sea Otters

[mbhalihunter]

i don't know if this is a repeat

"UC Berkeley News
By Robert Sanders, Media Relations
November 9, 2005

BERKELEY - Abalone divers, who typically despise the California sea otter because of its voracious appetite for the largest and tastiest of the shellfish, may actually have otters to thank for the dinner-plate size of the prized delicacy.

Worldwide, abalones tend to be small, in the range of 2 to 4 inches across, according to evolutionary biologist David Lindberg, professor and chair of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a former abalone diver himself. Along the California and Pacific Northwest coast, however, abalones have grown much bigger, culminating in the 12-inch diameter red abalone, Haliotis rufescens, avidly sought by divers and once the center of a thriving commercial fishery.

A surge in the last century in the sea otter population, however, killed off the commercial abalone industry along the central and southern California coast and made it hard for sport divers to find any abalones, let alone large, 12-inch ones. Many divers, fishermen and even wildlife biologists worry that the otter is driving the abalone to extinction."....


...read the whole article here:

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/...9_abalone.shtml

[fuzz]

Your linky no worky!

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/r..._abalone.shtml

[seahunter]

Oh it is “A surge in the last century in the sea otter population” that “killed off the commercial abalone industry”!