The lovely Lori did a smashing job of tenderizing an end-of-season Abalone catch plucked fresh from the North Coast by intrepid Dave and husband of November birthday girl, Jennifer. What a fleet of delicious dishes it made, in a variety of incantations, my favorite being the simple lemon, butter, caper combo whipped up in a red-hot, stove-top skillet.
So, what's the skinny on Abalone, that luxury dish that most of us here in California salivate over widely when in the good fortune to be in the company of a sport diver?
Sport harvesting of California's red abalone is legal with a CA state fishing license and an abalone stamp card that comes with a set of 24 tags (abalone has to be tagged as soon as it has been harvested from the Pacific).
Abalone has to be caught legally by using breath-hold techniques or shorepicking, with a minimum size of seven inches across the shell and no more than three a day, or 24 a season, from April to November, excluding July. Absolutely no scuba diving allowed for abalone here in California and anything south of the mouth of the SF Bay is strictly prohibited as are the taking of black, white, pink and flat abalone, which are all protected by law.
Wetsuited abalone divers don mask, snorkel, weight belt and a gauge and an abalone iron - utilized for prying the abalone from the rock before it has fully clamped down. Boats, tube floats and kayaks are commonly used to carry divers only a short distance off the shore.
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