Concurrent restoration of the abalone and the sea otter in Southern California: An inquiry

摘要

Enormous public and private resources have been invested in developing the knowledge base and technology base to enable the culture of haliotids, which have been commercially exploited in California for a long time (Morse 1984, Ebert 1989, Hahn 1989,http:/sgd.gso.uri.edu). Strategic implementation of aquaculture technology is expected to play a vital role in achieving restoration goals for the endangered white abalone, as well as the black, green, pink and pinto abalones, all listed as Species ofConcern under the ESA (Davis el al. 1998, US Federal Register 2001, 2004a, Laffcrty 2001, US Department of Commerce 2004, California Department of Fish and Game 2005). Although still considered an experimental technique, documented case studies from other regions, have demonstrated the potential applicability and utility of artificial propagation as a management tool in restoration of depleted natural aba-lone resources (Inoue 1986, Sweijd et al. 1998, Heasman et al. 2004). Funding remains the biggest obstacle to this approach.