They a rarely seen, but important part of marine ecosystems on the California coast. But, overfishing and a deadly disease decimated the Black Abalone population.
A cutting edge project taking place off the Ventura, and Santa Barbara County coastlines is trying to save them from extinction.
"They have a bluish, to black shell, they can grow to be about 20 centimeters (about eight inches) and they adhere to the rocks, in the cracks and crevices," said Nate Fletcher, who is a UC Santa Cruz researcher involved in the project.
"The Black Abalone is a marine snail, found from Mendocino County down into Baja California," said Dr. Walter Heady, who is a Senior Scientist with The Nature Conservancy. "In the 1980's and 1990's, they were hit by a disease called withering syndrome. That all but wiped out Black Abalone in Southern California. Basically, the animal gets sick, its foot that it uses to suction onto a rock withers to a point where it can no longer hang onto the rock, and it falls off and eventually dies."
The researcher said the disease ravaged the state’s black abalone population, in some instances killing 99% of them in colonies in Southern California, and the Channel Islands.
Steps were taken to protect the abalone. They received endangered species protections. But, researchers realized more needed to be done to prevent them from extinction.
The endangered White Abalone could be captively bred, but that didn't work for Black Abalone.
A plan was developed. About 250 black abalone would be moved from the Channel Islands to a preserve at Point Conception in an effort to develop a new population of the marine snails.
Heady said one of the big problems was how to pay for what is a three year, $400,000 project. The answer is ironic. Most of the funding comes from an environmental disaster.
After the 2015 oil pipeline rupture on the Gaviota Coastline, a consent decree with owner Plains All-American Pipeline included a fund for environmental projects for the region. That fund is paying most of the costs for the black abalone translocation project.
The abalone were removed from off of Santa Cruz Island. They were taken to UC Santa Barbara for what you might call abalone physicals, and were tagged. Then, they were taken to their new homes in The Nature Conservancy's Dangermond Preserve, near Point Conception.
Heady said placing them together was important, because of how they reproduce.
"They need to be in high enough densities to reproduce. They emit sperm and eggs into the water column, and they need to meet in the water column to create the next generation," said Heady. "As you might imagine, individuals need to be close enough so that might happen."
The last of the abalone were moved this week. It could take a few years to see if the effort is successful. The question is will the colony take hold, and start to reproduce. There’s also another concern. Sea otters consider the abalone a delicacy, so the hope is they don’t disrupt the effort.
