Local News in Brief : San Clemente : Abalone Season Opens in Small County Areas
The season for sport fishermen to take abalone, the ocean delicacy that retails for up to $40 a pound when sold commercially, has opened in Southern California, including a small portion of the county, a state Department of Fish and Game spokesman said Friday.
Curt Taucher said a moratorium on abalone fishing has been in effect since 1977 from Palos Verdes Point in Los Angeles County to Doheny State Beach in Dana Point “because those waters had been overfished.”
However, abalone can be taken near San Mateo Point and the San Mateo Rocks off San Clemente, he said, as well as most of the shorelines of the Channel Islands, except for the northeast coast of Catalina Island, where the season will begin April 1.
He said fishermen must have valid licenses and carry gauges to assure they take only legal-size abalone. Open season will continue until October.
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