Palos Verdes Coast : Poachers of Abalone Get Snared in Patrol’s Net

Todd Tognazzini peered through a telescope, focusing on five men below on the beach at Point Vicente. The more he saw, the more suspicious he became.

“They’re eating something in shells,” Tognazzini said as several onlookers watched and listened. “It could be abalone, or it could be peanuts.”

Tognazzini, a state Department of Fish and Game warden, wasn’t taking any chances. Weaving his way down a winding trail to where the men were camped, he questioned them to find out whether they had any illegal abalone. As it turned out, the men were eating limpets, “the poor man’s abalone.”

The warden returned to his car to continue along the coast.

“You have to be pretty good at climbing up and down cliffs,” Tognazzini explained. “And sneaking up behind people.”

Going On for Years

Fish and Game Department officials in Long Beach say wardens are getting plenty of practice at scaling the rocky ledges along the Palos Verdes Peninsula these days as they attempt to deal with what the department views as its main sportfishing violation problem--catching poachers of black abalone.

For years, the officials say, poaching of the snail-like mollusk, which lives and breeds in the shallow tidal pool areas along the coastline, has persisted during low tide periods when so-called “shore pickers” flock to the exposed pools to pry the tasty shellfish from its habitat.

Besides taking more than their legal limit, fish and game wardens say, the poachers endanger the breeding stock by taking thousands of young, undersize abalone every year, ignoring a 7-year-old moratorium on the taking of any abalone species along a 40-mile stretch of coast from Palos Verdes Point, also known as Rocky Point, in Palos Verdes Estates to Dana Point in Orange County.

All Sorts Poach

The same wardens say it has become a cat-and-mouse game between them and some poachers, who have, according to Tognazzini, become “more sophisticated,” resorting to such tactics as posting their children to watch for wardens from the tops of bluffs, having friends or family drop them off along the coast so their vehicles do not arouse a warden’s suspicions, or simply holding barbecues on the beach and eating their loot on the spot.

“I’d say there isn’t any particular group of people doing the poaching,” Fish and Game Lt. Michael McBride said. “We’ve had everyone from 80-year-old ladies to pre-teen-agers helping their parents. Everyone has been caught with their hands in the cookie jar as far as abalone are concerned.”

“It doesn’t matter what time of day it is,” said Bob Johnson, chief aquarist at the Cabrillo Beach Marine Museum in San Pedro, who has launched a program with Fish and Game wardens to replant live abalone confiscated from poachers. “I chase them out of the beach area around here all the time. I’ve seen them with buckets of abalone.”

Fish and Game officials say that a variety of abalone can be found in the coastal waters, including the red abalone, the one most often harvested for commercial purposes, and the black abalone, which is abundant in a number of places along the California coastline and is the most common abalone species along the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

The shellfish ranks low in gastronomic preference because its meat, which tastes similar to squid, is generally tougher than that of its cousins.

Thrived at One Time

The same officials say abalone once thrived in the Peninsula area, and were harvested extensively in the early part of this century. Japanese divers, for example, once fished for red abalone off the shores of White Point in San Pedro, exporting tons to Japan.

Like other once-popular seafood species, however, abalone dwindled over the years. Dave Parker, a biologist with the Department of Fish and Game, said scientists believe that heavy sport and commercial harvesting during the 1950s, along with a drastic decline in the kelp beds where abalone feed, led to their decline. The decrease in kelp beds is believed to have been caused by warmer waters resulting from the dumping of municipal waste into the ocean.

Parker said that as part of the effort to reverse the sinking fortunes of the abalone, the moratorium along a 40-mile stretch of coastline was implemented in 1977. In 1982, it was extended for another five years.

Outside the moratorium zone, Fish and Game regulations permit sport fishermen to take up to four abalone from Southern California waters during an outing. The shells of black abalone must measure at least five inches in diameter. 14.

‘Abalone Iron’

In addition, rules call for the abalone, which cling to places such as caves or the sides of rocks, to be taken with what is called an “abalone iron,” a special tool that allows the fisherman to pry the shellfish from rocks without harming it, so it can be put back if it is undersized. Knives, screwdrivers and similar objects may not be used because abalone bleed easily.

While many people apparently abide by the rules and respect the boundaries of the moratorium area, many others do not, especially when it comes to the black abalone, which are especially vulnerable because they can easily be plucked from the beach.

The Department of Fish and Game said that last year it issued 411 citations to people along the local coast for violating abalone laws. Most of the citations, which carry a penalty of $25 plus $5 for each illegal abalone a person possesses, were for black abalone.

But department officials say that number would be much higher if more game wardens could devote time to pursing poachers (at present only three wardens patrol the Palos Verdes Peninsula). And the number of citations does not account for the fact that people are often caught with hundreds of illegal abalone in their possession, the officials say.

12,000 Confiscated

John Ewald, a warden on the Peninsula for more than two years before he was transferred to Monterey, said that in 1982 the department confiscated about 12,000 abalone from poachers in Los Angeles County. The overwhelming majority were taken in the Palos Verdes area, he said.

“I’m sure it wasn’t any different in the years preceding or after,” Ewald said. “It has been affecting the resource greatly, not to mention the fact that many of these folks are also taking other shellfish.”

Ewald said that while many of the poachers take the abalone to eat, some are apparently selling them to restaurants or friends. And some of the poachers he has cited were repeat offenders, he said.

“I have no doubt that because of the frequency and high value of the abalone, many people are taking them back for sale,” said Ewald, who once arrested three men with 650 abalone. “I once arrested a person who was a restaurant owner. And I had tips that some restaurants were buying the undersized black abalone.”

Effects Uncertain

Just what effect poaching has had on the black abalone population is uncertain. Fish and Game biologist Parker said the black abalone population is probably younger and less abundant than it would be if there was no poaching.

“If you go into an area where there is little human contact (with the abalone), they are older and more abundant,” Parker said. He added that many black abalone are taken before they can grow old enough to spawn, usually when their shell size reaches two or three inches.

Aquarist Johnson believes the problem around the breakwater in San Pedro, a popular place for black abalone and poachers alike, is very serious. Johnson, who has set up saltwater tanks at the museum to hold confiscated live abalone until divers can replant them into the ocean, says he has seen the beach littered with thousands of abalone shells discarded by poachers.

“It is devastating them,” Johnson said. “Absolutely devastating them.”