Black Max Pro

[Fairy Dawdy]

NOAAFisheries is dedicated to conserving and restoring black abalone. Our scientists use innovative techniques to study, protect, and restore their population. We also work with our partners to ensure that regulations and management plans are in place to reduce poaching and increase the wild abalone population.

Black abalone had been important to commercial and recreational fishing in California since the mid-1800s, and commercial fishery landings peaked in 1973 at nearly 2 million pounds. By 1993, both commercial and recreational fisheries for black abalone closed because of significant population declines throughout Southern California, primarily due to mass mortalities associated with disease (withering syndrome).

The black abalone is a marine snail with one large, oval-shaped shell and a muscular foot used to move and to hold tightly to rocks. The blackish-blue shell has five to nine holes (respiratory pores) used to breathe, remove waste, and reproduce. It also has a black-colored epipodium, an extension of the foot with tentacles used to sense the surrounding environment.

Abalone are slow-moving bottom dwellers. They attach to rocks and other hard surfaces using their muscular foot. When disturbed, they become difficult or impossible to remove. An abalone can also use its foot to move across surfaces. Black abalone are generally found in rock crevices.

Adults eat different types of algae. They can catch kelp drifting along the seabed or attached to rocks. Black abalone feed on giant kelp and feather boa kelp in southern California (south of Point Conception) habitats, and bull kelp in central and northern California habitats.

Black abalone live on rocky substrates in intertidal and shallow subtidal reefs (to about 18 feet deep) along the coast. They typically occur in habitats with complex surfaces and deep crevices that provide shelter for juveniles and adults. Because they occur in coastal habitats, black abalone can withstand extreme variations in temperature, salinity, moisture, and wave action. Black abalone range from about Point Arena, California, to Bahia Tortugas and Isla Guadalupe, Mexico. They are rarely found north of San Francisco and south of Punta Eugenia. In the mid-1900s, black abalone abundances were highest south of Monterey, particularly at the Channel Islands off southern California. Beginning in the 1980s, the spread of withering syndrome caused mass mortalities, leading to dramatic declines in black abalone throughout the southern portion of the range. Today, populations in southern California remain at low densities, with signs of natural recruitment and increasing numbers at a few sites. The status of the species in Mexico remains largely unknown but is also depleted compared to historical levels due to overfishing and disease.

A commercial abalone fishery opened in California in the early 1970s, peaked in the mid-1970s, and closed in the 1990s. The fishery used size and season limits to reduce the number of abalone caught. Even with these protections, the fishery greatly decreased the abalone populations and has had long-term effects on their recovery.

Illegal harvest (poaching) of black abalone continues to be a problem, particularly along remote stretches of the central California coast where numbers of black abalone are relatively high. Illegal harvest reduces black abalone abundance in the wild, further reducing the ability of populations to reproduce and sustain themselves over the long-term.

Other abalone diseases have emerged over the past several decades in abalone populations outside of California (e.g., herpes virus, vibriosis, sabellidosis). To date, no outbreaks of these diseases have been observed in wild black abalone populations. However, black abalone may be susceptible to these diseases. Strict regulations and monitoring are needed whenever animals are imported and/or transported between facilities, to minimize the potential for introducing these diseases to wild abalone populations.

Black abalone live in shallow coastal habitats that are vulnerable to chemical spills, such as oil spills. Spills and spill response activities could affect black abalone populations by directly killing or injuring animals and harming their habitat. The impacts may vary widely, depending on the type and amount of material involved, the location, local environmental conditions, and the status of black abalone populations within the spill area. We cannot predict where or when spills may occur, but can minimize the risks to abalone and their habitat through careful planning and coordination on spill response activities.

Sedimentation events can affect black abalone and their habitat through burial and runoff of toxins. In 2017, a large landslide along the central California coast buried about 1,700 meters of rocky intertidal habitat and the black abalone populations within the area. Severe fires along the Big Sur coast led to a massive debris flow event that buried additional segments of the coast and black abalone populations. Emergency response planning is underway to quickly mobilize and rescue black abalone in response to future sedimentation events.

Working in partnership with several other organizations, we study the biology, behavior, and ecology of the black abalone. The results of this research and monitoring inform management decisions and enhance recovery efforts for this endangered species. Our work includes:

NOAA Fisheries published a recovery outline in September 2016 (PDF, 30 pages) and a final recovery plan in November 2020. The final black abalone recovery plan describes the recovery goals, objectives, criteria, and actions needed to recover black abalone throughout its range in California and Baja California.

When a species is listed under the ESA, NOAA Fisheries evaluates and identifies whether any areas meet the definition of critical habitat. Those areas may be designated as critical habitat through a rulemaking process. The designation of an area as critical habitat does not create a closed area, marine protected area, refuge, wilderness reserve, preservation, or other conservation area; nor does the designation affect land ownership. Federal agencies that undertake, fund, or permit activities that may affect these designated critical habitat areas are required to consult with NOAA Fisheries to ensure that their actions do not adversely modify or destroy designated critical habitat.

This designation includes approximately 360 square kilometers of rocky intertidal and subtidal habitat within five segments of the California coast between the Del Mar Landing Ecological Reserve and the Palos Verdes Peninsula, as well as on the Farallon Islands, Ao Nuevo Island, San Miguel Island, Santa Rosa Island, Santa Cruz Island, Anacapa Island, Santa Barbara Island, and Santa Catalina Island. Within these areas, the designation refers specifically to those rocky intertidal and subtidal habitats from the mean higher high water line to a depth of -6 meters, as well as the coastal marine waters encompassed by these areas.

Black abalone populations within disease-impacted areas (e.g., southern California) remain at low numbers. Recruitment and increasing numbers have been observed in a few areas, but not at the scale or scope needed for natural recovery. Active restoration efforts may be needed to rebuild populations. We are working with partners to test the effectiveness of different restoration tools to enhance black abalone populations. These tools include:

Investment in disease monitoring, genetic testing and ongoing research on abalone reproduction and recruitment dynamics (e.g., how the distance between individuals affects fertilization success) will be critical to guide enhancement efforts.

We work with local schools in southern California, using presentations and interactive activities to share about the history and culture of black abalone and our current work to monitor, protect, and restore their populations. We are also working with partners throughout the coast to raise awareness about the important role of black abalone in coastal communities and how the public can take action to protect our rocky shores.

NOAA Fisheries conducts research on the biology, behavior, and ecology of the black abalone. The results are used to inform management decisions and enhance recovery efforts for this endangered species.

Long-term monitoring of black abalone populations and their habitat has been ongoing throughout the California coast, in some areas since the mid-1970s. NOAA Fisheries continues to support these monitoring programs because the data provided are critical to assessing the status and recovery of black abalone. For example, these monitoring efforts allowed researchers and resource managers to detect the mass mortalities of black abalone that occurred in the 1980s and 1990s and to track the spread of the disease through the Channel Islands and northward along the mainland California coast. Since then, continued monitoring has confirmed the local extirpation of black abalone at many sites, as well as the persistence of black abalone at several locations. Monitoring has also detected recent recruitment events and increases in black abalone numbers at a few local areas.

Efforts to expand monitoring in southern California and Baja California are underway to fill data gaps within these regions. Future monitoring may also include genetic sampling to evaluate the population structure of wild populations and additional health monitoring to assess the level of infection with the withering syndrome disease, as well as to provide early detection of other diseases among the wild population. This long-term monitoring is only possible due to the efforts of our many partners, including Federal agencies, State agencies, universities, and non-governmental organizations, that carry out field monitoring each year and maintain and manage the data so that it is accessible to researchers and resource managers.

Our partners at the University of Washington, University of California Santa Cruz, University of California Davis-Bodega Marine Lab, and CDFW have made significant advancements in disease research, including the development of novel methods to detect the withering syndrome pathogen in wild abalone and their habitat, antibiotic treatments to remove the pathogen from captive abalone, correlations between increased water temperature and increased infection and disease rates, and the discovery of a bacteriophage that infects the pathogen and increases the survival of infected abalone. We continue to work with our partners to evaluate the potential for disease resistance in black abalone (through the bacteriophage and through genetically-based resistance) and the susceptibility of black abalone to other diseases.

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