Rangers have cited or arrested 10 people on California's north coast suspected of illegally taking abalone, a struggling species with strict fishing limits.
Point Reyes National Seashore rangers on Saturday issued citations to six people at Tomales Bay for taking undersize abalone, failing to fill out required punch cards that track abalone takes and other violations. The citations totaled $2,600.
On Thursday, state Department of Fish and Game rangers arrested four men at Moat Creek Point in Mendocino County on suspicion of poaching abalone at night.
Sport fishermen are allowed to catch three abalone that are seven-inches-or-larger per day and up to 24 annually. The state requires each mollusk to be tagged and detailed on a report card.
Commercial harvesting of wild abalone has been banned since 1997.
