In Reply to: California Outdoors Q & A: Abalone Diving with Spare Air for Safety? posted by CDFG News Release on April 05, 2011 at 13:23:03:

This is another case of a regulation restriction that takes precedence over the lives of people.

Having a spare air (as described which shows use / non-use) might save a life or two each year while still preventing illegal usage of an air device. Its obvious that if its used it would be to overcome an emergency situation. Perhaps if caught by F&G the diver would need to show no possession of abalone or face a fine and forfeit of the deployed device (need to buy a new one). But they would have their life if it had been a true emergency and that is what counts.

A tamper evident device makes a lot of sense if it would save a life.

The regulation needs to be changed to allow this.