An abalone farm is part of this awesome Santa Barbara ranch for sale for $39.5 million
A Santa Barbara home on the market for $39.5 million offers a unique feature: an abalone farm.
Located in the ocean community of Gaviota, Rancho Dos Pueblos is for sale at $9 million below the original asking price.
Along with the Cultured Abalone Farm on the property, the 214-acre ranch includes a 1920s Spanish-style home, nine guest residences, 50 acres of agriculture and a quarter-mile of private beach.
The compound is one of four abalone farms in California. Abalones are a type of sea snail. The on-site farm at Rancho Dos Pueblos raises them from hatchery to market-size using seaweed and water from the Santa Barbara Channel, according to the Los Angeles Times. The abalone farm uses a permitted recirculating water pipeline to the Pacific Ocean, according to the property’s listing.
Kerry Mormann of Berkshire-Hathaway HomeServices California Properties is the listing agent.
The property is “one of the most important oceanfront ranches along the spectacular Southern California coast,” according to agent remarks on the listing. “This is where Santa Barbara was first discovered and was a favorite site of the Chumash Indians.”
The ranch is entered through a private, gated road, which winds past a freshwater pond to the main house, which has five bedrooms, seven bathrooms stretching over 5,000 square feet. A brick patio wraps around a swimming pool.
The ground floor has a wood-paneled living room with a large fireplace, a dining room, a poker and cigar room, a commercial kitchen, a four-car garage, butler’s and maid’s rooms, and two bathrooms, according to Mansion Global.
The quarter-mile-long private beach, along with freshwater lagoons and two surf breaks, is one of the estate’s main draws, according to Mormann.
“Honestly, half of the value of the property is the ocean front,” Mormann told Mansion Global. “The first time I saw the property, I thought it was a state park or a county park,” he said.
Native Americans valued abalone, according to the University of California, Davis, using the meat as a source of food and the shell for implements, trade material and decoration. The red, pink and green abalone comprise most of the commercial abalone take, but all California species are in serious decline, according to a UC Davis article on the industry. Commercial and sports fishing are regulated by specific size limits and a bag limit for each category of harvest. Abalone aquaculture in California was first attempted at Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station at Pacific Grove in 1940.
This story was originally published September 28, 2018 at 10:44 AM with the headline "An abalone farm is part of this awesome Santa Barbara ranch for sale for $39.5 million."