Abalone

For Native peoples of California, the abalone found along the state’s coast have remarkably complex significance as food, spirit, narrative symbol, tradable commodity, and material with which to make adornment and sacred regalia. The large mollusks also represent contemporary struggles surrounding cultural identity and political sovereignty. Abalone Tales, a collaborative ethnography, presents different perspectives on the multifaceted material and symbolic relationships between abalone and the Ohlone, Pomo, Karuk, Hupa, and Wiyot peoples of California. The research agenda, analyses, and writing strategies were determined through collaborative relationships between the anthropologist Les W. Field and Native individuals and communities. Several of these individuals contributed written texts or oral stories for inclusion in the book. Tales about abalone and their historical and contemporary meanings are related by Field and his coauthors, who include the chair and other members of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe; a Point Arena Pomo elder; the chair of the Wiyot tribe and her sister; several Hupa Indians; and a Karuk scholar, artist, and performer. Reflecting the divergent perspectives of various Native groups and people, the stories and analyses belie any presumption of a single, unified indigenous understanding of abalone. At the same time, they shed light on abalone’s role in cultural revitalization, struggles over territory, tribal appeals for federal recognition, and connections among California’s Native groups. While California’s abalone are in danger of extinction, their symbolic power appears to surpass even the environmental crises affecting the state’s vulnerable coastline.

This comprehensive volume contains some sixty papers and reviews presented at the First International Symposium on Abalone Biology, Fisheries and Culture held in La Paz, Mexico. Introductory reviews in the book focus on the evolutionary origin, radiation and modern relationships of the genus Haliotis. Further papers review aspects of the reproductive process, larval energetics, mechanisms of larval settlement, and the ecology of settlement. Feeding deterrents and attractants, and the relation between food and growth are reviewed in a later section of authoritative papers. The natural mortality of abalone and its causes, predators and diseases are thoroughly reviewed. Several papers summarise information on the withering syndrome afflicting black abalone in California. A series of excellent papers and reviews then consider the problems of managing abalone fisheries. The models used are reviewed and examples given of the application of models to specific fisheries. Further papers provide new information on stock enhancement and the book concludes with case studies of the eight major abalone fisheries of the world with a review of the management of each. The book is divided into eight sections as follows: Part I - Evolution and distributuion. Part II - Physiology, genetics, reproduction. Part III - Larval ecology and settlement. Part IV - Feeding, growth. Part V - Marketing, disease and predators. Part VI - Fishery biology, modelling. Part VII - Case studies of fisheries. Part VIII - Culture.

Annotation An international Workshop on Rebuilding Abalone Stocks in British Columbia was held during February 23-26, 1999, in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. The main goal of the workshop was to develop a realistic strategy to rehabilitate depleted northern (pinto) abalone, Haliotis kamtschatkana, stocks in British Columbia. The workshop was also meant to clarify the roles, expectations, and shared interests of many of the interest groups in British Columbia, emphasizing the key role in the rebuilding plan of local communities, including First Nations and non-native communities. There are 13 peer reviewed papers in the Proceedings.

Explores the natural history of the abalone and its imperiled future, focusing on a mix of issues, from the simple and expected (over-harvesting) to the more complex (fundamental scientific misunderstandings).