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| White Abalone Restoration: Spawning 6 Million | |
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On April 23, 2001, the biologists placed 3 females and 2 males that were reproductively ready into separate containers in a UCSB lab, dimmed the lights, and added hydrogen peroxide, an abalone aphrodisiac, to the abalone tanks. A couple of hours later, 2 females had spawned about 3 million eggs, followed by release of sperm from one of the males. The biologists added the sperm to the two batches of eggs and watched as more than 95 percent of the eggs were fertilized and developed normally, the next day, into free-swimming larvae. About a week later the larvae settled onto plates thinly filmed with red algae. |
| Female white abalone releasing 3,000,000 eggs in spawn of the rare mollusk, a joint effort by biologists of the Abalone Restoration Consortium. Photo: Courtesy B. Bosma, UCSB. | |
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The consortium had successfully spawned white abalone, a crucial step in developing a
white abalone hatchery. At the CIMRI hatchery, the young abalone will dine on algae
and grow in tanks, protected from predators, for several years. By the time they reach
a size of three to four inches long, they will be adults, with each female capable of
producing 1 million eggs a year. Biologists from CDFG will then be able to place these
young adults in groups in the ocean with the intent that the abalone will quickly start
to reproduce.
The consortium estimates that to find and collect 200 white abalone to launch a large-scale captive breeding program could cost $1.2 million or more. |
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| Two-day-old white abalone in free-swimming larval stage, with developing first shell (white) and fringed swimming organ (right), in culture at UCSB. Photo: Courtesy B. Matsumoto, UCSB. | |
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