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DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME 



A private citizen and a warden cooperate with Marine Fisheries personnel in measuring and 

 Sagging abalone which have been sent to the surface by the diver. After the abalone have been 

 tagged and their measurements recorded, they are returned to the diver who replaces them 



back on the rocks. 



By far the greatest single problem is to determine how the population 

 of the beach is replenished. The first approach to this has been to tag a 

 number of abalone and release them in various depths. When sufficient 

 returns have been received, it should be possible to determine from which 

 depths the intertidal populations of abalone are derived. Some people 

 have contended that the offshore commercial fishery tends to take abalone 

 which would normally move onto the beaches and thus contributes to 

 the decline of the sport fishery. "When all facts are assembled, it should 

 be possible to assess the effect of commercial fishing and its relation to the 

 sport catch. Other valuable biological information will be revealed by 

 tagging, such as growth, rate and extent of migrations along shore and 

 into deeper waters, population pressures in the various depths, rate of 

 survival, rate of exploitation, both commercial and sport fishing, and 

 many other factors necessary to understand the dynamics of this 

 important resource. 



Even though the deep-sea aspect of the project has been in operation 

 only a few months, it is apparent that there are abalone in untold numbers 

 in the offshore waters. In suitable unexploited habitats, the abalone 

 population is so dense that the available bottom is literally covered by 

 these animals, and competition for living room is severe. However, in the 

 areas where they have been fished commercially, the supply of legal 

 size abalone is almost exhausted. 



