Divers on the Lot'a Fun prepare to move abalone off of Diablo Canyon before construction of the breakwater. ©David Ranns/Telegram-Tribune
Abalone beneath these waters found new home. © photos by Dave Ranns/Telegram-Tribune
It is a storyline that mankind has been working ever since the first tool was made from a stick, stalk or stone.
Currently Pacific Gas & Electric is attempting to study the underwater fault lines offshore from their nuclear power plant at Diablo Canyon.
Whale and fishing advocates say the study will damage sea life near the plant. Others say we can’t begin to fully understand the destructive potential locked in the earth’s crust without these studies.
It is difficult to balance between nature and man in a post-Fukushima Daiichi world.
Pacific Gas & Electric has attempted to mitigate environmental damage.
As the breakwater was about to be constructed, for the new power plant hundreds of abalone were moved to new neighborhoods.
Unforeseen at the time was the withering syndrome that today has greatly reduced abalone numbers. The disease is more acute in warm water and studies show the outfall from the plant has changed the population balances in that zone.
This story is from the June 17, 1969 Telegram-Tribune:
A-plant abalone evicted
A seldom – attempted operation — transplanting hundreds of abalone — was accomplished over the weekend at the site of PG&E’s atomic power plant in Diablo Canyon.
About 800 abalone were pried loose from rocks in the seabottom area where Pacific Gas & Electric will build a breakwater.
They were moved to areas up and down the county’s shore where abalone population has been depleted, said Capt. Hugh Thomas, county supervisor for the Department of Fish and Game.
Fifteen volunteer sports divers, Ernie Porter of the commercial abalone industry, four Fish and Game wardens and three state biologists were among those taking part in the operation.
PG&E had paid the rental on one of the boats used by the divers.
Thomas said there just wasn’t enough time to get all the abalone moved, so a later operation will be scheduled in the same area.
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