That dive knife is about 6 inches long, so you can see how undersized, from the legal harvesting standpoint, these abalone are. If no one poaches them, divers will pick them off the rocks in two or three years when they reach the 7-inch (and legal) length. I'm thinking of picking up my Abalone Card, just to pick one or two legal-sized ones this year and to eat them, to eat them and to share the meat with friends.
Mendocino rock garden.
I'm thinking the urchins and the abalone are in competition here. The urchins have devastated the kelp forest in this cove and others near Van Damme State Beach in Mendocino County, CA. We need some otters airlifted down for kelp rescue work. (I think that's JP's joke, meant half seriously.)
