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| White Abalone Restoration: Search by Submarine | |
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The Abalone Restoration Consortium, a team of biologists from the University of
California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Channel Islands
Marine Resource Institute (CIMRI), National Park Service (NPS), California Department
of Fish and Game (CDFG), and NMFS, is striving to bring the rare abalone back to a
self-sustaining population. In fall 1999, the biologists launched a two-person
submarine from their research vessel in a series of surveys to locate white abalone.
They hoped to bring a small number into captivity to develop husbandry techniques
that might allow the establishment of a captive breeding program. Stocking of
hatchery-reared white abalone is one of the possible strategies that may be used
to rebuild the white abalone population. By noting characteristics of the habitats
and depths where white abalone were found, the researchers located additional
populations. Unfortunately, their survey found only 157 live white abalone, an
average density of 2.7 abalone per hectare of habitat.
By fall 2000, the biologists had accumulated 15 white abalone captured from the wild, which they were nurturing at UCSB and at CIMRI in Port Hueneme, Calif. Husbandry techniques that had been developed for culture of other abalone were adapted to suit the white abalone’s particular food and environmental needs, and the key to their fertility cycle was sought. | |
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