White Abalone

Scientists are celebrating a population boom among endangered white abalone being raised at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Lab as they approach the day they can begin introducing captive-bred sea snails into their natural ocean habitat — perhaps later this year or next.

Read More in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat

Millions of Eggs Bring Program 1 Step Closer to Saving Species

The Bodega Marine Laboratory’s white abalone program has millions of new additions following its most successful spawning ever at the University of California, Davis, facility. Three out of nine recently collected wild white abalone spawned last week, as did seven of 12 captive-bred white abalone. One wild female was particularly generous, producing 20.5 million eggs herself.

For the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences: A UC Davis alumna, Kristin Aquilino directs the Bodega Marine Laboratory's white abalone captive breeding program. In 2001, the marine snail was officially listed as endangered. Using captive breeding, Aquilino and colleagues hope to bring the species back from the brink of extinction.

Read more here

UC Davis' very own Kristin Aquilino, a project scientist at Bodega Marine Laboratory,  is in charge of the largest population of endangered white abalone that exists in the world. Her work focuses on a long-term goal is to build the population in captivity, then outplant them into the wild and hope to increase a stable population. However, is there even a chance for them to survive back in the wild with dramatic changes in ocean chemistry due to climate change? 

Dr. Kristin Aquilino and Professor Gary Cherr at UC Davis hope hope to save the species by reintroducing their captive-bred population back into the wild. While once thriving in kelp forests in Southern California and Mexico, the white abalone are now being threatening by overfishing and are close to extinction. By breeding them in captivity, there is hope that there may be a chance for the populations to recover. 

Bodega Marine Laboratory team member Kristin Aquilino has been featured on KQED Science regarding her efforts to study and protect white abalone. Aquilino reflects on her time at BML researching abalone and the path to species revival.

Read the KQED Science article here.