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Black abalone were once the most abundant large shellfish clinging to the rocks of intertidal zones between Baja and Oregon. A savored delicacy for sea otters and native coastal people alike, these hard-shelled marine snails were prized for the iridescent colors and the occasional pearl found inside their shells. Like most other species of abalone native to coastal California, black abalone have been decimated by seafood enthusiasts and the fisheries that fill their plates.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE
PROTECTION STATUS: Not listed
PETITIONED: 2006
RANGE: Between Coos Bay, Oregon, and the tip of Baja California, Mexico
THREATS: Global warming, ocean acidification, rising sea levels, poaching, coastal development, pollution, and abalone wasting disease
POPULATION TREND: Black abalone have been virtually eliminated throughout most of their range.
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SAVING THE BLACK ABALONE
Scientists agree that the black abalone is withering toward extinction. With abalone intensely harvested during the 1800s, fishing was banned early last century. Yet harvesting resumed in 1968 — and this threat combined with abalone wasting disease to wipe out the majority of Southern California’s black abalone population and leave the species facing a severe decline.
Today, the black abalone is presented with another threat, just as grave as overfishing or disease: global warming. Warmer water will increase the deadliness of withering syndrome and will likely reduce the kelp species consumed by abalone. Rising sea levels will eliminate much of the species’ intertidal habitat. Ocean acidification, caused by the ocean’s absorption of excess carbon dioxide, may further render oceans inhospitable to sea animals.
Any of these factors alone would be sufficient to warrant listing the black abalone as an endangered species, which the Center petitioned for in 2006. Shortly after receiving the Center’s petition, the National Marine Fisheries Service announced that the black abalone may well deserve protection, and in January 2008, the species was formally proposed as endangered.
Once listed, the black abalone would join the white abalone and elkhorn and staghorn corals as the only marine invertebrates protected by the Endangered Species Act.
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Contact: Brendan Cummings
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