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



1.2 1.4 16 I.e 2.0 



0.4 0.6 O.H 1,0 12 1.4 1,5 



FISHING MORTALITY RATE 



Figure 8.— Eggs per recruit, expressed as a percentage of the eggs that would be produced by an 



DISCUSSION 



Field Studies 



Johnsons Lee was a "very good" abalone bed in 

 the late 1940s, an era when strong winds and cur- 

 rents created problems for fishermen with heavy 

 dive gear (Glenn Bickford'^). More recent assess- 

 ments suggest that this situation continued; com- 

 mercial fishermen considered Johnsons Lee to be 

 one of the best red abalone beds in southern Califor- 

 nia from the early 1970s through 1983. The number 

 of commercial-legal individuals dropped sharply 

 after 1983, perhaps as a result of the El Nino of 



1982-84, but the productivity was high again in 1987 

 (Austin Apodaca'). The history of Johnsons Lee can- 

 not be traced beyond this qualitative level; there are 

 no previous quantitative studies and the scale of 

 CDFG block landing records is too large. For the 

 years 1978 through 1982, a period for which our data 

 suggest that the population density was stable, we 

 estimate that the total number of red abalones in 

 our 36 ha study site, assuming an average density 

 of 0.179 abalones per m- and that 80% of the habi- 

 tat was suitable for abalones based on the average 

 transect rejection rate, was 51,552 animals (SE 

 <19,008). This included 7,776 (SE <3,744) sport 

 minimum legal-sized individuals and 1,440 (SE < 



«G. Bickford, P. 0. Box 729, Morrow Bay, CA 93442, pers. com- 

 mun. 1987. 



'A. Apodaca, 1702 Mountain, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, pers. 

 commun. 1987. 



330 



