Passage Summary: Abalones need to stop worrying about being eaten to grow big and find mates. Surprisingly, they only grew big once the waters were full of the otters that eat them.

Reasoning: Large abalones require an environment with low predator pressure to focus on mating, yet they evolved specifically when their main predator, the otter, became dominant.

Analysis: The paradox is the timing: why would a species grow larger (requiring less predator focus) exactly when predators increased? To resolve this, we need a piece of information that explains how otters might actually make life 'safer' or 'easier' for the abalones in a counterintuitive way. Perhaps otters eat other, more dangerous predators, or perhaps they thin out the abalone population so the survivors have more food. Look for an answer that turns the 'threat' of otters into a 'benefit' for abalone growth.