Abalone Farming

Well, it’s time to take care of the kids. I know it’s a dirty job but somebody’s got to do it. — Trevor Faye, Abalone Farmer

Trevor’s got a lot of kids to care for. Two hundred-thousand to be exact, housed in cages and containers in the cold murky depths off the central coast. That’s where he grows his crops: in the water, at the "fields" of the Monterey Abalone Company, California’s only oceanic abalone farm. The crops may be quiet crustaceans, but the environment couldn’t be more challenging.

It’s a very harsh environment, we’re always struggling to keep our heads above water-literally.
— Trevor Faye

Trevor’s partner Art Seavey is a marine biologist and the resident expert on the care and feeding of abalone large and small. He says the abalone grow only about an inch a year in this healthy environment where the water temperatures and water conditions are just right.

According to Maritime Museum historian, Tim Thomas, the line tracing the rise and fall of Monterey’s abalone industry began in the 19 th century. He told us that in the early 1850s a group of Chinese fishermen came down from San Francisco and discovered a huge wealth of abalone along the coastline. It was even dubbed "the abalone rush".

Soon a new breed of abalone hunter arrived on the scene, Japanese immigrants equipped with the latest tools of the trade. Divers came in with hardhat gear and began to dive in canvas suits and big helmets for abalone. By 1920 there were at least ten companies working out of Monterey Bay harvesting thousands of tons of abalone.

It wasn’t long before the boom began to go bust. Due to heavy fishing and heavy eating by a growing number of hungry sea otters, the abalone population dwindled. In 1997 the commercial abalone fisheries were closed and a door swung open for these new fangled farmers. While abalone were already being raised on land-based farms, the men behind the Monterey Abalone Company wanted to give diners the delicacy they deserved.

"Abalone are marine snails they eat the leaves on the kelp plants just like your garden-variety snail eats the leaves on your garden plants," Seavey explains. "We want to produce a natural, high quality product, and one that is environmentally sustainable and that’s great tasting and tastes like real abalone."

Back at the abalone ranch, the cages are hauled up so the little critters can chow down. For Art and Trevor it’s a point of pride that their operation is allowing the wild abalone to revive and recover while keeping their culinary customers satisfied.

Slowly but surely the demand for domesticated abalone is growing,particularly for the big boys of the bunch—mature abalone about seven or eight years old. If you’ve ordered abalone in a restaurant, you know they fetch a pretty price.

Additional information:
Check out the world of abalone farming at www.montereyabalone.com Live abalone can be shipped overnight anywhere in the United States. For more information contact Art, Joe or Trevor at the Monterey Abalone Company at: (831) 646-0350 or by e-mail at mtryabco@redshift.com