Vallejo abalone diver dead - California

[DandyDon]

Ninth for the year: Second Abalone Diver Dies Off Mendocino County Coast In A Week « CBS San Francisco

POINT ARENA (CBS-SF) — A 58-year-old Vallejo man has become the second diver in a week to die while attempting to harvest abalone along the Mendocino County coast, authorities said Monday.
The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office identified the diver as Eric Stine.
Deputies responded at 7:12 p.m. Saturday to a report of a missing diver in the 45000 block of Lighthouse Road in Point Arena, sheriff’s Lt. Greg Stefani said.
Stine and another man began diving for abalone around 2:45 p.m. The other diver finished as it got dark and last saw Stine in a cove about 300 yards north of the Point Arena Lighthouse, Stefani said.
Helicopters, boats and people on land searched for Stine into the night and continued the search. His body was found around 10 a.m. Sunday by the Mendocino County volunteer search and rescue team about a quarter-mile north of the lighthouse in the surf at Manchester State Beach.
Crews from the U.S. Coast Guard Station at Noyo River, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, California State Parks and the Redwood Coast Volunteer Fire Protection District also participated in the search, Stefani said.
The death was the second involving an abalone diver in Mendocino County in less than a week. San Francisco resident Victor Segundo De Leon, 56, died on Nov. 22 off Cooks Beach near Gualala, according to the sheriff’s office.
Chief Deputy Coroner Shannon Barney said the cause of death is pending in both cases.
Six divers have died in Mendocino County alone this season, which started April 1 and ends Monday.

 

[Yank]

9- that's a lot of fatalities. Condolences. Do you know of the causes? Is there a common denominator other than abalone diving?

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Sacramento Syndrome comes into play a lot. You can only take abalone on the North Coast while free diving. It's much harder work than scuba and often requires cliff climbing and holding your breath for long periods of time. The physical exertion alone will get many out of shape divers. Most of the deaths seem to be men in their late 50s. Often they will drive down to the coast and dive no matter what the conditions are. They are not about to let high surf and treacherous conditions turn them away empty handed.

 

[DandyDon]

Well, the season is over so that's the grand total unless there are late reports - or poachers.

 

[Bob DBF]

Well, the season is over so that's the grand total unless there are late reports - or poachers.

I believe that is one of the highest totals for a year and may be due to the change in regulations this year. The new regulations say that one half the total of the Abalone Card have to be taken in Mendocino County. This has taken a lot of divers into areas that they have never dived before. Not to say The Mendocino coast is a lot harder than the Sonoma coast, but the Ab diver is not familiar with the peculiarities of a site as he would be diving his usual site. Also there is less protection from the predominant north swell and less sheltered coves, which means more coast subject to the open ocean. It is a longer drive for most divers which may include an overnight stay so the pressure to get the Abalone is greater.

As for poachers, I'll let karma sort that one out, and see no reason to add them in with sport divers.

Abalone diver dies off Point Arena
BY RANDI ROSSMANN
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
November 30, 2015, 7:57AM

An abalone diver died Saturday off of Point Arena, the second diver death in one week along the Mendocino coast.
A Mendocino County sheriff’s official Monday said the man was Eric Stine, 58, of Vallejo. Stine’s body was found Sunday morning in the surf, about a quarter-mile off the Point Arena Lighthouse and Manchester State Beach.
The man and a friend on Saturday had gone diving for abalone at about 2:45 p.m. off of Light House Road.
A call for help came at 7:12 p.m. when Stine’s friend told dispatchers he’d finished diving and it was getting dark and there was no sign of Stine. He said he’d last seen the man about 300 yards north of the light house.
Sheriff’s officials launched a search, using a helicopter, boats, deputies and firefighters who looked unsuccessfully into the night. The next morning the search resumed, with the sheriff’s volunteer search and rescue team, the U.S. Coast Guard, Redwood Coast volunteer firefighters and state parks and fish and game personnel.

Firefighters found the body at 10:05 a.m.
The prior weekend, a San Francisco man died while diving off of a Gualala beach. Victor Segundo De Leon, 56, had been diving with a friend off Cooks Beach when he apparently suffered a medical emergency. His friend swam him back to shore, where attempts were made to save him.

An autopsy was scheduled to determine how Stine died.

Bob
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I may be old, but I'm not dead yet.

 

[drrich2]

Any estimate on the number of abalone taken? Never been to California so have no good frame of reference for the fascination some have with the little creatures. I wonder how many are obtained per death on average.

 

[Laurie S.]

The reports will start coming in now on the numbers. Maximum of three per day, 18 per year per diver. Yummy little critters.

 

[Bob DBF]

The reports will start coming in now on the numbers. Maximum of three per day, 18 per year per diver. Yummy little critters.

Three in possession, don't get caught with 6 if you were diving for two days.

18 maximum in a year, no more than 9 of which may be taken in Sonoma county.

Abalone have to remain in their shell until being prepared for immediate consumption.

And so on...

Yes, they are tasty!

I really wouldn't expect any good numbers until next year, it's a lot of data to transcribe not counting slow returns on the cards.



Bob