White abalone have influenced cultural traditions, inspired regional cuisine, and moved generations of ocean lovers, but when overfishing pushed white abalone to the bring of extinction, humans and white abalone had to develop an entirely new relationship with each other.
Stressful childhoods can affect an individual’s adult years and influence future generations. Scientists at the University of California, Davis, found a similar pattern holds true for red abalone exposed as babies, and again as adults, to the stress of ocean acidification.
White abalone shells are magnificent structures. Translucent during the marine snail’s juvenile days, the extremely durable shell increases in opacity as the organism ages, gaining its paint-splatter-esque red, brown and white coloring from the algae it eats.
All seven of the United States’ abalone species that live on the West Coast are listed as Critically Endangered or Endangered according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, Red List of Threatened Species. This is the first global Red List assessment of the species. The West Coast listings were based on an abalones assessment led by Laura-Rogers Bennett of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, or CDFW, and University of California, Davis.
Kordi Kokott is a biology student who recently graduated from the SRJC with an Associates in biology. She’s moving on to become a student at UC Davis to get her bachelor’s in biotechnology. She was an intern at the Bodega Marine Lab in the summer of 2022 and was mentored by Sara Boles.
The world’s abalone are threatened, endangered or otherwise vulnerable in nearly every corner of the planet. While captive breeding efforts are underway for some species, these giant sea snails are notoriously difficult to spawn. If only we could wave a magic wand to know when abalone are ready to reproduce, without even touching them.
