The Abalone Diver’s Dilemma

A story by Tim Thomas.

Sea otter with an abalone

Tim Thomas

Author and Monterey area fisheries historian, Tim’s tale, like so many of those he shares in his books and with all who will listen, is something that happened to a friend of his, rather than his own adventure. It’s a story about how an abalone saved his good friend’s life.

About Tim:

TIM THOMAS is a Monterey area Fisheries Historian. He is a popular speaker and lively tour guide. Tim decided early on in his life to focus on fisheries because Monterey Bay is so important, and everybody who lives here, everyone who came here, has been greatly impacted by the bay.

Tim is also an author of several books, “The Abalone King of Monterey”, “Monterey’s Waterfront”, and “The Japanese on the Monterey Peninsula.”

A fourth-generation native of Monterey Bay, he was born in Carmel and grew up in Pacific Grove. His interest in local history started when he was quite young. Tim says they did not teach local history when he was a kid, but he spent a lot of time on Cannery Row in the late ‘60s among the abandoned canneries. His interest in fishing history was sparked there. It was just something he says he wanted to know more about.

When the Monterey Bay Aquarium first opened in 1984, Tim got heavily involved in local historical ‘stuff’. He was brought in to help write some living history about whaling on Monterey Bay, for the Aquarium’s initial temporary exhibit entitled Whale Fest. That job led to his working as historian and curator at the nearby Maritime and History Museum for 16 years. Tim has also worked for California State Parks and the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

You can watch Tim’s story on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JyECffecLk

THE ABALONE DIVER’S DILEMMA

My old friend Roy Hattori was the last Japanese abalone diver. In fact, he was the only diver that was born here. All the other divers came from Japan and with only a couple exceptions returned to Japan. Roy was born here, just a couple blocks from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. So I asked him how to do this, how to become a diver.

He told me that when he was a young man that had just graduated from Monterey High School, his father wanted to get in the abalone business. There was a depression, he had a lot of debts to pay, and he thought, “This would be a good way to make some money.” He had no experience in this business whatsoever, but he had friends who were in.

So Roy borrowed some equipment and got on a boat right here in the middle of Monterey Harbor. He dressed up in this wool long underwear, put on this heavy canvas suit, tacked about sixty-five pounds of lead weight to his front and back, and tied lead to his shoes. Then he bolts on the helmet, and they just toss him off the side of the boat.

You start running down there, that’s how you learn to be an abalone diver. They asked him if he ever had any problems down there. He said, “You know, sometimes the currents were really strong and kicked up water.” One time the water kicked up, hit him in the helmet, and cracked the glass on his helmet.

So you’re thirty feet below in Monterey Bay, and you just cracked the glass in your helmet. What do you do? You want to get to the surface, right? It takes a long time!

First he has to release the side valve on his helmet, fill up his suit with air, and bring himself back up. So what he did, this was the most remarkable thing, he just reached in to his abalone basket, pulled out an abalone, which is just a big marine snail, takes that abalone, sticks it on the glass, and that abalone sealed up the crack and stopped the water from coming in. Roy goes to the surface, changes the glass and starts all over again.

This is a fond memory for Tim, he knew Ray for over 25 years. Ray actually passed away, it’ll be four years this Christmas 2016.

Thank you for sharing your story with us Tim!