by Buzz Owen   Special To The ICO

I am wondering how many folks reading this know that our town, Gualala, has a species of abalone named after it?

That's right, Gualala is the only town in the United States that has an abalone "named" after it, for in 1899, Dr. Robert E. C. Stearns, of the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, described a small species of abalone that he found on our coast and gave it the name "Haliotis walallensis," changing the "g" to a "w" so that people would pronounce it correctly!  He went on to note that it was found on the "Mendocino Coast", and that the original specimens were found near a "small settlement known as Gualala".

He further stated that: "Gualala, which is the official post-office name of the village, is a localized corruption of the Indian Walalla, which latter, I think, should be perpetuated".  Stearns mistakenly described it as a "form" of the "Green Abalone", Haliotis fulgens, found in southern California, and Mexico, and used the name "Haliotis fulgens var. walallensis".  This is why, in 1948, Paul Bonnot, of the California Department of Fish and Game gave it the name "Northern Green Abalone" (he also misspelled the name "wallalensis").  Today, we know that it represents a totally distinct species, and is not a form of the Green Abalone.  In 1960, Keith Cox, new director of the California Fish and Game's abalone investigation, gave it  the common name "Flat Abalone" which is what is is usually called today.  I have always preferred the name "Gualala Abalone", because most often small red abalones are also very flat!

The earliest reference I have found concerning its distribution states that it is found "from Gualala to the Russian River" (reference lost).  It is listed as being found from "Westport, Northern California, to Point Conception" in the California F&G publication "The Abalones of California" by Paul Bonnot, mentioned above.  It currently is known to occur from around Newport, Oregon, to central Baja California, Mexico, though south of Point Conception (near Santa Barbara) it exists in very deep water -- generally in excess of 65 to 70 feet.

It is one of the smallest species found on our coast, not often growing beyond five inches in length, though the "World Record" specimen just exceeds seven inches.  Usually found dead on the beach in our area, it is often thought to be a small red abalone, but it has smaller and more numerous holes (usually 6 or 7 are open), stronger ribbing, colorful bluish-green, chevron-like markings, and a very flat shape, which generally serve to differentiate it from this species (though small reds can also be quite flat, as mentioned).  When alive, the animal looks very different also, being a beige/yellowish color with short stubby tentacles and profuse "bumps" in the epipodium ("skirt") encircling the foot, whereas the red abalone is dark gray to black with a very simple "skirt".

The Gualala Abalone used to be very commonly found on our coast in the intertidal zone, back in 1954 to 1959, but as the years passed, I noticed that this changed, and it was most often found out in shallow, sub-tidal depths, like in 10-15 feet and deeper.  Then, sometime in the mid-1980's, I noticed I was seeing very few of them much inside of a depth of 20 feet or so.  About this time, something very odd occurred:  suddenly the commercial urchin divers were seeing the bright little shells, fresh dead, scattered about on the bottom while they were picking sea urchins!  This continued for approximately 2 to 3 years, and then, rather abruptly, live specimens seemed to no longer be seen!  Only 2 or 3 living animals have come to my attention since, found by diver friends who were looking for them out of curiosity.  What caused this apparent die off is unknown, but it may coincide with the "El Niño" years of the early 1990's.  This problem hasn't occurred further north in Oregon, where the species is still very common in the Port Orford area.  Hopefully, this local decline is only temporary and the species will stage a "comeback" in the near future.  A similar decline was seen in another species of abalone further south, and in the red abalone population in extreme northern California and southern Oregon.  In the latter case, after a number of years of apparent decline in the numbers of older mature animals, with no visible juveniles or sub-adults being noticed, suddenly, many smaller, very young animals seemed to be popping up in abundance.  This suggested that a number of spawning had led to successful recruitment!  Again, this was north of Eureka to just over the Oregon border.  The sizes and apparent ages of these animals suggest they are probably the result of spawning that took place during the early 1990's -- the warmer water "El Niño" years!!  This seems to suggest that there is a cyclical pattern to the distribution of some species of abalone, which may become more evident in the future if careful studies are done to document fluctuations in population densities.

So the next  time you find a small abalone shell on the beach, look carefully!  You may have just found the little abalone named after our town!

*Independent Coast Observer (ICO), September 9, 2005.   www.mendonoma.com  :  ico@mendonoma.com
Buzz Owen is an abalone expert who lives in Gualala.