Species Name: Haliotis cracherodii Common Name: “ Black Abalone “ Animalia-Mollusca-Gastropoda

1. Species Name: Haliotiscracherodii Common Name: “Black Abalone“ Animalia-Mollusca-Gastropoda Number of Species in Category: 18 Habitat: Marine Intertidal Assessment: Endangered Supported commercial fisheries in the 1960’s. In the mid-80’s a wasting disease “Withering Syndrome” reduced the commercial catch. Fishing of the abalone became illegal in California but is still harvested in Mexico. At most surveyed locations where the disease was present the populations were reduced by more than 80%. Adding to their endangerment is that larvae do not disperse very far from their point of origin thus depleted abalone populations are unlikely to be restored. Ecology: Marine H. cracherodii is a sessile marine gastropod. It clamps tightly to rocky substrates and feeds on algal matter scraped from the rock surface. Gametes are released into the water where fertilization occurs to produce free-swimming larvae.

2. Haliotiscracherodii(Black Abalone) Conservation Plan: The U.S. already has a conservation plan in place in California where the harvesting of the species is illegal. The species is also native to the Baja of California, Mexico and we suggest it become illegal to fish the species there as well. We also believe a small portion of the population should be bred in captivity in case the population starts to decrease dramatically. Half of the population bred in activity needs to be free of the withering syndrome and the other half needs to have the disease. This way we can do more research on withering syndrome, and obtain a “clean” portion of the population that we can always reintroduce into the wild. http://www.int-res.com/articles/meps/142/m142p185.pdf