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White Abalone Restoration | ||
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The white abalone is a marine snail, a deep-water species found between 80 and 200
feet on rocky reefs from Point Conception in California to Punta Abreojos in Baja
California, Mexico. During the early 1970s, the Channel Islands were home to 1,000-5,000
white abalone per acre.
Highly prized for their tender white meat, white abalone were harvested in an intense commercial and recreational fishery that developed during the 1970s, then quickly peaked and crashed as the abalone became increasingly scarce. The fishery for white abalone closed in 1996. In the 1990s, less than one white abalone per acre could be found in surveys conducted by federal and state biologists. The rarity of this species within its historical center of abundance prompted the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to list it as a candidate species under the Endangered Species Act in 1997. In May 2001, the white abalone became the first marine invertebrate to receive federal protection as an endangered species. |
White abalone may live dozens of years and attain a length of about 10 inches. Unlike more mobile animals, abalone are slow-moving creatures confined to a small area for their entire life. They reproduce by broadcasting their eggs and sperm into the seawater. For fertilization to occur, the spawners need to be within three feet of a member of the opposite sex. No neighbors means that the remaining animals are effectively sterile. |
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Related Link: National Marine Fisheries Service: Proposed Endangered Species |
Selected Reference: Lafferty, K. D. and A. M. Kuris. 1993. Mass mortality of abalone Haliotis cracherodii on the California Channel Islands: tests of epidemiological hypotheses. Marine Ecology Progress Series 96:239-248. |
Dr. Kevin D. Lafferty USGS Channel Islands Field Station Marine Science Institute University of California Santa Barbara, CA 93106 Phone: (805) 893-8778 Email: klafferty@usgs.gov |
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