Facts

This Once-Popular Seafood Has Pretty Much Vanished From The US

Though they have been eaten, utilized, and honored in Japanese, Chinese, and Native American cultures since prehistoric times, during the 1950s through the 1970s, abalone poaching was a common practice in the United States. The sea snails, with their chewy but tender meat, were not only a culinary delicacy, but their shell was a popular material of that era. Lined with the iridescent Mother of Pearl, the shell has been used to make jewelry, wall art, vases, hair accessories, buttons, and myriad home decor. In Traditional Chinese Medicine — an ancient medical system still used today — abalone shells are used to treat ailments affecting the eyes. Sought after as food, medicine, and decoration, some species of the mollusk

See Full Page