There are a couple of situations in which divers get popped for size violations when a few precautions would have prevented it. First, you cannot include a growth on the abalone's shell when measuring for size. The barnacle at the edge won't do you much good if the warden knocks it off with his gauge, something they've been commonly known to do. Second, "clickers" can cause some problems if handled roughly. Clickers are barely legal abalone, only a faint click can be heard when gauging them for size. You can see while measuring an abalone that one side of the gauge is invariably on the growing edge of the shell. This growing edge is very fragile and a chip can turn a legal abalone into a few hundred dollar fine. Finally, never mix your abalone with someone else's. If you're both using the same float, you should have separate game bags. That way, if one of the abalone comes up short, there's no question who it belongs to.

Regulations for 2002 limit the total number of abalone to 24 per person per season. To enforce this limit, a Punch Card is included with each abalone stamp purchase. Harvesters are required to punch the card once for EACH abalone landed and fill in pertinent details. The new regulations require that the card be punched and filled out before "leaving the area" but there's no clear definition of what "leaving the area" means. Regardless, when the card is all punched out, you're done for the season. If you lose the Punch Card, you are also done for the season; it is illegal for an individual to purchase a second stamp during the same season and Punch Cards only come with the purchase of a stamp.

The daily take limit on legal-sized abalone is, starting in 2002, 3 per day per person. Under no circumstances can any single individual legally take more than 3 legal-sized abalone during any single day. Though strongly discouraged, there is no limit on the number of undersized abalone taken, gauged, and returned to the rock from which it was taken.

WARNING - "take" means removing or popping the animal from the rock. Boiled down to its essence, an abalone harvester may never detach more than 3 legal-sized abalone on any single calendar day. "Take" does NOT mean "take from the water" or "take home".

It is violations of daily take limits that gets most folks into trouble:

• No DRYSACKING

  The practice of Dry Sacking has been almost a tradition on the north coast. This is when one harvester gets their Daily Take limit of abalone but doesn't stop there. Instead, they continue to get abalone for their friend/wife/3-year old/family dog. This is a violation of the Daily Take (3) limit on take and it is not tolerated by law enforcement or the courts in this day and age. Quite the contrary. "Helping out" a buddy getting their limit will cost you $1000 in Sonoma County.

• No HI-GRADING

  Another temptation faced by ab harvesters is the situation where they've taken their daily limit when they come across a much bigger ab. Should you return one of the smaller abs at that point in order to take the larger one, you'd be guilty of Hi-Grading and you'll be in violation of the 3 per day limit on take. Incredibly, an excellent article on northern California abalone diving that appeared in the Sierra Club's magazine includes the author's description (confession) of hi-grading under direction of an experienced abalone diver. It's sometimes hard for me to believe how divers, new and old, have such a hard time grasping some rather simple rules.

The final limit on legal-sized abalone is the possession limit. Simply stated, an individual may possess no more than 3 abalone. This includes what's at home in the freeze, what's in the ice chest in camp, and what's in the abalone float you're dragging ashore. No more than a total of 3 abalone in all locations combined.

However, this simple limit gets a little more complicated when applied in the real world.

• There is no requirement that an abalone harvester keep what they take.
• There is no requirement that an individual get their own abalone.
• There is no requirement that an individual have a fishing license to possess abalone (the license is only required for take).

A common mistake made by recreational divers is that they inadvertently take temporary possession of a dive buddy's abalone. If they're checked at that point, they may well be in for a very expensive lesson on possession limits. For example, three divers go out abalone diving, each get their limit, and they all return to shore together. One of the divers decides they want to run back to camp and leaves their abalone with the other two resting on the beach. If checked at that point, a law enforcement officer will find two divers in possession of 9 abalone. How the officer handles that situation depends on how many times the officer has been lied to in the past (hint: most of those officers have been on the job for decades). A similar mistake with possession limits can occur at the end of a weekend on the trip home. It's not uncommon for a family or group to travel in multiple vehicles and to return home via separate routes. When that's the case, be certain that there are enough people in each vehicle to reasonably account for both the daily take and possession limits of the abalone being transported in that vehicle

There is one exception to the Possession Limit in cases where you're offshore on a boat for more than one day and you've filed for a Multi-Day Permit. This is a very rare situation in northern California (few of us spend more than a day on a boat). If you're interested in pushing the possession limits into the gray zone, check the regs and understand what you're expected to do.