30° — 



FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 87. NO. 2. 1989 

 115° 



Figure 1 .—Map of California illustrating the study site and other locations described in the 



text. 



tinued into the late 1980s (Tegner 1989). Several 

 possible causes of the decline have been identified 

 (Burge et al. 1975; Cicin-Sain et al. 1977; Tegner 

 1989) including sea otter predation in central Cali- 

 fornia, mortality caused by removing and replacing 

 sublegal abalones, environmental changes, inappro- 

 priate size limits, and failure of larval recruitment. 

 The last is frequently invoked as a problem in aba- 

 lone fisheries (e.g., Harrison 1986). Furthermore, 

 because of the central California origin of the red 

 abalone fishery (Cox 1962), little is known about the 

 life history of this species in southern California. 

 Warmer temperatures, different current patterns, 

 and changes in food availability relative to central 



California are likely to affect population parameters 

 important to the management of the fishery. 



To provide a better basis for management of the 

 fishery and for the evaluation of seeding experi- 

 ments, the University of California Sea Grant Col- 

 lege Program and the California Department of Fish 

 and Game (CDFG) conducted a joint study of red 

 abalones at Johnsons Lee on Santa Rosa Island. The 

 site was visited annually during the second week of 

 July from 1978 through 1982 and in June 1984. Dur- 

 ing the first four visits, 2,145 animals were tagged 

 for growth studies (Haaker et al. 1986); these data 

 were used to calculate the von Bertalanffy growth 

 parameters (Haaker et al. in prep.). 



314 



