Abalone Artificial Reefs

 

Extra image of some Mackerel (Aji) egg tows in Maizuru Bay

I recently had an amazing opportunity to dive with my professor for some urchin surveys we were contracted to perform along the Wakasa bay coast. One of these sites happen to be an old abalone recruitment artificial reef. I had noticed some live abalone on some natural reefs nearby so there was likely some spillover effect. The actual ARs here were perfect squares about 2 meters across with about a half a meter height and a half a meter square taken out of the middle. There were plenty of fish along this reef, namely rockfish and wrasses, but I only found evidence of one abalone shell while diving here. This puzzled me until I asked the fishermen and my professor and they said in these summer months the abalone hide deeper below the reef and come out to feed more often in other months of the year. I really hope to return to this site when the abalone are more out in the open. I am also searching for any fisheries data that had been kept regarding this reef to see how well it has performed over the years. Its assume the grooves in each reef are cut to allow abalone recruits and juveniles a safe space to grow and then venture deeper into the reef. 

All in all I was extremely happy to have been able to make my first dive on a Japanese artificial reef. One designed specifically for abalone nonetheless. I also included an extra image of some mackerel egg tows done a couple weeks ago that I helped with by pulling the net up. Its really great to be helping out with so many projects.