Perth- Abalone Fishing

Reading the local papers, it seems like abalone fishing is rather special here. Apparently, its one of the only sustainable recreational abalone fisheries close to a major city in the world. Seeing that they made it sound like its so special, i’d decided to check it out. I got myself an abalone fishing licence from the department of fisheries, cost me $41.

Abalone fishing opportunity only comes around once a year, and it is only for a very limited time window. 6 weeks, only once a week on a sunday from 7am to 8am. When i got my licence, it was already 2 weeks into the season, but the licence was no cheaper.

Anyway, armed with my abalone fishing licence, I went to Mettam’s pool (close to Scarborough beach) very early in the morning.

When i got there, there were already quite a few people there. I even noticed a camping tent there. There must be some really keen abalone fishermen out there.

As 7am approaches, the crowd started to walk outwards on the coral reef.

At bang on 7am, when the fisheries warden signal the start of fishing time, everyone started digging for these abalone. There were 2 crowds, one on top of the reef,

and a group that came with their snorkeling gears

Its interesting that at 7am, they all submerged and swam out like a school of fish.

Being a newbie at this, i have no idea how abalone looks like. However, after observing some of the other abalone fishermen there, it was really obvious, they look like small round rocks on the reef.

To ensure that I do not cope the $1500 fine for taking undesized abalone, i took with me a gauge and measured the abalones before prying them out with a flat head screwdriver.

These suckers were really hard to pry off the reef, however, after one hour, i managed to collect the 20 abalone quota.

I used a fish net bag, similar to those used for washing delicates in a washing machine to collect the abalones to ensure that i was not bogged down in the 1 hour time limit.

To make doubly sure that i will not get fined, i remeasured the abalones with my gauge.

As you can see from my gauge, there are other fishing opportunities here in Perth like crabbing and rock lobstering. I am not sure where those can be done, but will keep an eye out for them.

Luckily I measured my catch as a fisheries warden did came up to me to ensure i did not breach the 20 quota and the size quota. They also checked my licence. So, if you ever do this, don’t skimp.

When i got home, i had a better look at the abalones. Some of them looked really nice.. they would probably look really nice in a fish tank

However, i do not have an aquarium, so i gutted the flesh out and chucked the shell. The trick is to cut the muscle that attaches the flesh to the shell without bursting a sac full of green crap.

A lot of scrubbing was required to take all the dirt out of these suckers, and after a few hours i managed to do all of them. To my disappointment, I only managed to get a bowl full of them

Then came a problem. I do not know how to cook them. I tried pan frying and boiling them. But both resulted in really tough and rubbery texture.

Apparently the shops sells these at $5aud an abalone.. hardly worth it if they are tough and rubbery.. and the ones i had were fresh too.

If any readers out there knows how to cook these, let me know.

I got 3 more weeks to go, hopefully the tide will remain low next week.

Tags: abalone, mettam's pool, Perth