Abalone: The Treasured Sea Snails Disappearing Off California's Coast

Bay Curious

KQED

History, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.9 • 999 Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2024

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bay Curious listener Lorraine Page likes to comb the Pescadero beaches for treasures in her spare time. She used to find abalone shells often, but says in the last ten years she hasn't seen any. She wants to know: what happened to all the abalone? Additional Reading: Climate Change-Induced Heatwaves Are Decimating California's Kelp and Abalone Bay Curious Podcast Garage Event April 11 Read the transcript for this episode Sign up for our newsletter Enter our Sierra Nevada Brewing Company monthly trivia contest Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts This story was reported by Dana Cronin. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and Brendan Willard. Additional support from Cesar Saldana, Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Jasmine Garnett, Carly Severn, Joshua Ling, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED family.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From K-QED.
0:05.0	When Lorraine Page moved to Pescadero in the 90s, she spent a lot of time at the beach.
0:11.0	It was her way to unwind.
0:13.9	I'm a family doctor on the coast.
0:16.8	So I'm busy, but on weekends and such,
0:19.6	that would be an outlet for me.
0:21.4	She would comb the beach and explore the tide pools for hours,
0:24.9	looking for one thing in particular, Abalone shells. Abalone are mollusks, basically big sea snails, up to 10 inches wide that live off our Northern California coastline.
0:39.0	You might recognize their shells, which are iridescent, somehow every color of the rainbow all at once.
0:46.9	Lorraine sought them out because sometimes, if she was lucky, on those abalone shells,
0:52.4	she would find an abalone pearl.
0:54.0	There are these beautiful little pearls that show up in the shell.
1:00.0	When Lorraine found one, she'd bring it to a jeweler in Pescadero, who would polish it up and
1:05.0	turn it into a one-of-a-kind necklace or earrings.
1:09.1	But over time, Lorraine has stopped finding them.
1:12.4	I used to be consistent that I'd find.
1:14.6	There's certain beaches in Cascadero, you'd find
1:17.6	Abiloni shells and I just can't.
1:20.5	They're not around anymore.
1:22.4	She hasn't found a whole
1:23.9	abalone shell in more than 10 years. That's just right simple question as do we
1:29.9	know why there's not as many abalone? I'm Olivia Ellen Price and you're listening to Bay Curious.
	...

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