Red Abalone, Sonoma Coast

Hello friends!

It’s approaching the end of abalone season where we live, and we recently got the chance to go out looking for some during a low tide. Most people dive for abalone but it is quite dangerous even if you are a well seasoned swimmer the waters off the Sonoma Coast here in Northern California can be some of the coldest and roughest out there. Instead we take another approach and wait for a negative low tide to go out and harvest the abalone closest to shore. There are many rules and regulations to stay up to date on when it comes to going for abalone or just fish and game in general. It’s crucial to follow and keep updated with these in the state you live.

A group of us drove out a few hours on two separate days, in hopes of getting the limit of 3 abalones per person per day (of course with proper license and tags). Once we got to the place we parked and trekked through rocky, slippery wet coastline til we got to the desired spot about a 45 minute walk from the where we parked.

Since we are novice at this we did end up leaving empty-handed as far as abalone go. Although it was still fun to see all of the tide pools and living creatures that reside on the coastline. One of our friends was able to get a couple of abalone and here are some from the two separate days we went, On the first day we attempted the low tide was later in the day around 1-2pm so it was a lot easier getting the spot because most of the rocks were dried up by the sun. On day two it was a darker, misty, foggy early morning negative tide which meant that the rocks were extra slippery because there was no sun to help dry them so it was more difficult but a doable more wet hike.

It is really beautiful there and worth the rugged trek, so much to see from sea snails to hermit crabs to little fish and star fish, sea urchins, mussels, and all kinds of sea weed and barnacles ect the list is endless.

The one friend that was able to get a couple abalone let me snap some pictures their shells are very beautiful and vary in colors so they’re all different. And many people are able to make jewellery, ash trays and all kinds of neat things with the huge shell they carry.

Thank you for reading, the season opens up again from August to October where we live so we will do an updated post if we end up getting one we will let you guys know!

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