Posted by Chris on April 27, 2002 at 15:37:31:
In Reply to: feeding the abs? posted by Brad on April 27, 2002 at 14:04:06:
Brad,
I think your chain is being yanked.
Abalone cannot detach themselves from their shells, however they can extend their body out of it a ways.
I you lay an abalone upside down, the foot will reach out, in a U shape and grab hold of substrate next to the inverted ab.
It will then pull it's shell back on top of itself.
They can also move remarkably quickly at times.
Last year while freediving for abs in Mendocino I saw an ab try to fend off an attack from a small sun star.
The abalone had lifted it's shell about three inches up and was rotating it back and forth a few times each second.
If I had not seen it I would not have believed abalone could move so fast.