BajaNomad

Red tide and abalone

Joelt - 9-24-2011 at 02:04 PM

I hope that the red tides that were along the Baja Pacific coast earlier this year didn't cause as much damage to the abalone as it did along the California Sonoma coast. We went to our regular spot and found nothing but hundreds of dead abalone. The white meat was rolling along the bottom in the surge and the shells were piled up in the low spots. Very sad. They are saying that a red tide occured in that section of the coast and there was no current or surge to move the water around. Must have depleated the oxygen in the water. It seems to have affected about 40 miles of coast. They have closed abalone season along the Sonoma coast because of the kill off. It also killed off a lot of star fish and urchins. Hope the abalone in Baja survived the red tides.

DENNIS - 9-24-2011 at 02:25 PM

I guess nature is allowed to do these things.
It's when man depletes a species that the world will stand up and object.

I understand your sense of loss as I lived in Newport when the Ab divers would clean out expansive populations without even a thought of the consequences.
They couldn't care less anyway. Between occasional touches of the Bends and more than occasional bouts of alcohol abuse, they couldn't think straight .

Cypress - 9-24-2011 at 02:27 PM

Pacific red tides? El Nino? Is it unusual to have a Pacific red tide? :?:

DENNIS - 9-24-2011 at 02:31 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Cypress
Pacific red tides? El Nino? Is it unusual to have a Pacific red tide? :?:


Not unusual. It's a warm water, summer thing. It's been around forever.

Woooosh - 9-24-2011 at 02:40 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by DENNIS
Quote:
Originally posted by Cypress
Pacific red tides? El Nino? Is it unusual to have a Pacific red tide? :?:


Not unusual. It's a warm water, summer thing. It's been around forever.

If it's a warm water thing.. it didn't happen here this summer. The water was ice cold all and not one hot day- not even a Santana (Santa Ana). Coldest summer I can remember.

Cypress - 9-24-2011 at 02:40 PM

Thanks. Learn something every day.:)

DENNIS - 9-24-2011 at 02:42 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Woooosh
Coldest summer I can remember.


Coldest summer is still warmer than the warmest winter....especially in the agua.

Joelt - 9-24-2011 at 04:02 PM

Was just wondering if there was any loss of abalone from red tide down in Baja. Hope not. It seems that in some places there they have gone to a lot of trouble to manage a sustainable fishery.

Woooosh - 9-24-2011 at 04:30 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Joelt
Was just wondering if there was any loss of abalone from red tide down in Baja. Hope not. It seems that in some places there they have gone to a lot of trouble to manage a sustainable fishery.

Our resident abalone expert is recuperating... stay tuned, he'll know.

woody with a view - 9-24-2011 at 06:16 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by DENNIS
I guess nature is allowed to do these things.
It's when man depletes a species that the world will stand up and object.

I understand your sense of loss as I lived in Newport when the Ab divers would clean out expansive populations without even a thought of the consequences.
They couldn't care less anyway. Between occasional touches of the Bends and more than occasional bouts of alcohol abuse, they couldn't think straight .


hey D, we have seen them (insert your favorite bottom scratcher here) swarm over the ENTIRE coastline in the midst of the sister's area. they took everything down to the size of the bottom of a Pacifico bottle, and jammed it into their sacks. it only took 2 days and they were gone.

the boys said it was an effort to put them out of bidness. i haven't seen a REAL abalone (8 inches plus!) since the early 70's when the neighbors gave a few to my Granny. she was from akron, OH and didn't know WTF to do with them. i was 6..... the ABs came from sunset cliffs......

[Edited on 9-25-2011 by woody with a view]

shari - 9-24-2011 at 06:32 PM

although there is concern when the water temps rise here, the abalone havent been affected here in Asuncion. They had an excellent season this year after last year's cold temps and lush kelp forrests stayed around all year. There is an aquaculture laboratory here that has milked abalone seed from here to keep in stock in case something happens and a die off happens so they can re seed the area with local abs again...it would be a local disaster though as much of the town depends on the abalone industry income.

Woooosh - 9-26-2011 at 12:37 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by DENNIS
Quote:
Originally posted by Woooosh
Coldest summer I can remember.


Coldest summer is still warmer than the warmest winter....especially in the agua.



I need to re-visit my answer. The water off Rosarito is def in Red Tide mode today. (I told the guy who digs local clams for me - no thanks). Maybe Hillary is stirring things up?



Abalone

C-Urchin - 9-26-2011 at 01:26 PM

There are huge ones at Catalina. Definitely 8' range. Nice to see that they are recovering. Saw greens and pinks while diving. LOTS of urchins too.

ILikeMex - 9-26-2011 at 03:30 PM

Red tide doesn't particularly have anything to do with water temps, tides or being red in color..

From Wikipedia wiki link
Red tide is a common name for a phenomenon also known as an algal bloom (large concentrations of aquatic microorganisms), an event in which estuarine, marine, or fresh water algae accumulate rapidly in the water column and results in discoloration of the surface water. It is usually found in coastal areas.[1]

These algae, known as phytoplankton, are single-celled protists, plant-like organisms that can form dense, visible patches near the water's surface. Certain species of phytoplankton, usually dinoflagellates or diatoms, contain photosynthetic pigments that vary in color from green to brown to red.

When the algae are present in high concentrations, the water appears to be discolored or murky, varying in color from purple to almost pink, normally being red or green. Not all algal blooms are dense enough to cause water discoloration, and not all discolored waters associated with algal blooms are red. Additionally, red tides are not typically associated with tidal movement of water, hence the preference among scientists to use the term algal bloom.

Some red tides are associated with the production of natural toxins, depletion of dissolved oxygen or other harmful effects, and are generally described as harmful algal blooms. The most conspicuous effects of these kind of red tides are the associated wildlife mortalities of marine and coastal species of fish, birds, marine mammals, and other organisms. In the case of Florida red tides, these mortalities are caused by exposure to a potent neurotoxin called brevetoxin which is produced naturally by the marine algae Karenia brevis.

I have not heard season has been closed. Some 10-11 incher still around, but my Dad can still find them.



[img][/img]

woody with a view - 9-26-2011 at 03:56 PM

now that is the ever-loving-king of all ab's! thanks!

Joelt - 9-27-2011 at 03:15 AM

Thats a beaut! I think I've seen that picture before. On the wall at Timber Cove while getting a report card. 13 inches I beleive.

Oy Vey

Skipjack Joe - 9-27-2011 at 04:24 AM

“ This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water. ”

— Exodus 7:17–18

dean miller - 9-27-2011 at 05:08 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by DENNIS

I understand your sense of loss as I lived in Newport when the Ab divers would clean out expansive populations without even a thought of the consequences.

They couldn't care less anyway. Between occasional touches of the Bends and more than occasional bouts of alcohol abuse, they couldn't think straight .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Commerical Abalone divers were restricted to water over 25 foot deep and 100 yards off shore, the minimum legal size limits for commerical abalone had to be approximately one (1) inch larger than sport diving limits- which as you recall were greens 6-1/4, pinks, whites, threaded, 6, reds 7, so the commerical size limits were greens 7-1/4, pinks, whites, threaded, 7, reds 8 inches.

To locate and harvest commerical size abalone the divers generally had to dive the islands and most often the outer channel islands like San Miguel. The mother boats would pick up the harvested abalones return to Newport to the 13 street processing plant, where they were shucked trimed, pounded and packaged.

The abalone divers I have known many are college grads, (one with a masters from USC) very intelligent hard working and above all concerned since they and the world recognized that Abalone was a demishing product.

After the abalone processing plant closed many of th divers headed for Santa Barbara to dive in the oil industry and many have retired there.

There were probably a few who were tenders and hanger ons aka "warf rats" who had some difficulties and created a bad name for the professional abalone diver--but I never knew any of them--did you?

I will awaite your answer,

sdm

Woooosh - 9-27-2011 at 09:45 AM

The waves last night glowed an iridescent blue. An electric blue. I couldn't capture it on film, no matter which camera I used. The waves are getting bigger from Hillary and many people stopped their cars to get out and watch. I turned off my outside floodlights so we could all enjoy the free show... I'm still not eating the clams from out front for another week though.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/sep/27/red-tide-caus...

Red tide causing stunning bioluminescence at San Diego beaches


"A strong red tide along the San Diego County coastline is causing brilliant neon blue bioluminescence that's visible at night as tiny light-producing organisms get stirred up as the waves break.

This image was taken at North Ponto in Carlsbad on Monday night by Brian A. Witkin, who says in an email, "I'm a local Dive Master/Ocean enthusiast and I wanted to share with the U-T that we are have one of the strongest bioluminescent red tides I've ever seen in my 26 years in San Diego. Especially because of the timing of the lunar cycle with no moon around... Check out this picture I took last night and feel free to use it! This is an event not to be missed."

NOAA defines bioluminescence this way: " The light emitted by a bioluminescent organism is produced by energy released from chemical reactions occurring inside (or ejected by) the organism.

"If you’ve ever seen a firefly, you have encountered a bioluminescent organism. In the ocean, bioluminescence is not as rare as you might think. In fact, most types of animals, from bacteria to sharks, include some bioluminescent members. Also, bioluminescent are found throughout marine habitats, from the ocean surface to the deep sea floor.

"While the functions of bioluminescence are not known for all animals, typically bioluminescence is used to warn or evade predators), to lure or detect prey, for communication between members of the same species."

Peter Franks, a red tide expert at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, also has answered questions about the phenomena. Questions such as: Why do the dinoflagellates bioluminesce?

Franks says (in an email passed on by Witkin), "As far as we know (which is surprisingly not very (much) the bioluminescence both deters grazers of the dinoflagellates (who likes eating food that flashes in your mouth?), and also attracts the predators of the grazers which are mostly visually oriented organisms such as fish (the so-called "burglar hypothesis")."

[Edited on 9-28-2011 by Woooosh]