EARTH ISLAND JOURNAL • SPRING 2020 23prostaglandin endoperoxide, and spawn. This method has
enabled semi-predictable spawning in the lab and has gener-
ated juvenile white abalone for eventual release in the wild.
Leaning in to look at the minuscule animals attached to the
walls of the tanks, Burdick goes on to mention a newer “deck
spawning” technique that is also already being practiced. This
method involves spawning adult abalone aboard research
vessels, releasing them immediately afterward, and going on
to raise the larvae back in the lab. In other words, research-
ers facilitate reproduction while reducing disturbance to
wild adult abalone, who don’t ever have to leave the vicinity
WN\PMQZPWUMZMMN[-ٺWZ[ISQV\W\PW[MUILMJa\PM*Ia
Foundation are now in motion across the state, all with the
goal of raising abalone
in captivity, for eventual
outplanting back into
the sea.
“There are so many
people involved, and
everybody sort of has
a niche,” Burdick says.
“We’re going to be the
staging center for outplanting. Bodega Bay [in Northern
California] is leading the captive breeding program, and then
you have people at NOAAOWQVOW]\IVL\ZaQVO\WÅVLMQ[\QVO white abalone so we can learn more about their habitats.” PM[MMٺWZ\[IZMIVQUXWZ\IV\[\IZ\NWZIJITWVMZM[\WZI- tion, and they are backed by passion and momentum. But the program is still nascent, and it lacks the funding required to conduct operations consistently and on a scale large enough to combat the dozens of confounding elements working against abalone recovery today. Not to mention that dependably breeding and raising abalone in captivity is no easy feat. For one thing, abalone ZMXZWL]K\Q^MKaKTM[KIVJMLQٻK]T\\W\QUMXZWXMZTaQVTIJ settings because abalone do not breed at regular intervals. Their gametes are also often lost down the drain, as broadcast [XI_VQVO ZMY]QZM[ KWV[\IV\ [_MMXQVO _I\MZ ÆW_ \W _WZS Even if all goes well and baby abalone are born, no one is []ZM_PI\TM^MT[WNTQOP\\MUXMZI\]ZMIVLÅT\ZI\QWVJM[\[]Q\ their long-term growth while in captivity. Outplanting also brings challenges. Scientists do not yet know the best locations to outplant, since the entire California KWI[\Q[MXMZQMVKQVOPIZ[PÆ]K]I\QWV[QV\MUXMZI]ZMIVL
food levels due to changing climate. Predators and people,
too, often slow the process — like the octopus who has no idea
how resource-laden and politically vested its meal is, or the
poacher who wants to make a few hundred dollars by selling
a recently-outplanted abalone illegally on the black market.
AW]VOIJITWVMIT[WPQLMNWZINM_aMIZ[_PMVÅZ[\[M\\TMLWV\W
reefs, so it can be impossible to gauge outplanting success at
the outset, adding an additional challenge for researchers
\ZaQVO\WI[[M[[W]\KWUM[IVLÅVM\]VM\PMQZMٺWZ\[
For instance, following an outplanting project conducted
in 2015, in which 800 baby green abalone were placed in net-
covered PVC pipes to protect them from predators, Barilotti
ZMKWZLML M`\ZMUMTa TW_ V]UJMZ[ WN []Z^Q^WZ[ NWZ \PM ÅZ[\
year-and-a-half. Then, their numbers appeared to resurge.
“Abalone counts went from the low teens to 40, then 70, then
up to about 150 animals within a 10 by 10 meter site,” he says,
indicating that outplanted abalone may actually thrive given
the right conditions and
enough time.
Abalone behavior
after outplanting poses
yet another uncertainty.
Because most of the
abalone in labs have
never seen a wild envi-
ronment, researchers
do not know how they will react to threats like sea stars or
other predators once outplanted. Is predator response for
these animals, which have no obvious brain structure, innate?
Must it be learned? If so, are captive abalone capable of
being “taught” typical behaviors like hiding or twisting their
[PMTT[JIKSIVLNWZ\P]V\QTXZMLI\WZ[IZM[PISMVWٺ'
These questions are still being worked out by research-
ers like Melissa Neuman, Abalone Recovery Coordinator
for NOAA Fisheries, who has just begun testing predator
responses by placing sea stars atop captive abalone and
observing how the snails react.
Despite these challenges, the organizations and people
working with abalone are determined not to give up. Jessica
Brasher, animal husbandry manager at the Ocean Institute
in Southern California’s Dana Point, puts it simply: “We
don’t know enough yet to say that we shouldn’t keep trying.”
Right now, she explains, “success” does not mean recovery,
J]\ZI\PMZXZW^QVO_MKIVÅO]ZMW]\\PMUM\PWL[VMKM[[IZa
to get there.
Consultation and collaboration with Indigenous stake-
PWTLMZ[KW]TLNIKQTQ\I\M\PQ[MٺWZ\\]*[WNIZ\W\PMNZ][\ZI\QWV
of many coastal tribes, abalone science and data collection in
California have largely not involved Native peoples.
<PMIJ[MVKMWN6I\Q^M^WQKM[LWM[VW\ZMÆMK\ITIKSWN
interest from the tribes. Hillary Renick and Javier Silva of
the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians are immensely'We don't know enough yet to
say we shouldn't keep trying.'