Thanks Ken,
Tara and I last week visited the Sea Center as tourists. The display
referencing this success is impressive! Paul
On Apr 27, 2021, at 12:19 PM, Kenneth A. Tatro <kensword@xxxxxxx> wrote:
HI Folks,
Here is an exciting update from the Lead Aquarist, Nora Frank, about the Sea
Center's involvement with the White Abalone Captive Breeding Program:
I am ABsolutely thrilled to share some recent White Abalone highlights and
share a year in review from the White Abalone Recovery Consortium (WARC) and
our facility’s work with the White Abalone Captive Breeding Program (WACBP)
from 2020.
Lead Aquarist Nora Frank with 2014 cohort White Abalone on Assessment day
Photo By: Sarah Cowan
Although in the midst of this past year we’ve faced many challenges due to
the pandemic, this has not stopped our efforts to continue broodstock
reproductive conditioning and culturing, spawning, settling, outplanting, and
researching this incredible species. To begin, here is an overview of some
quantifiable measures of success for the WACBP. Between our 12 holding
facilities spanning California into Ensenada, Baja California there are
approximately 34,000 captive white abalone currently being housed. In
addition, there were 973 outplanted animals carried out by NOAA at
established stocking sites off of Los Angeles Country and San Diego County in
September and October 2020.
As of March 2nd the Sea Center currently houses 170 white abalone individuals
consisting of 4 2003 broodstock animals, 6 individuals from two separate 2014
cohorts, 40 2019 individuals and a recent addition of 120 2020 individuals.
In early 2020, Bodega Marine Lab (BML) had a high survival of 2020 progeny
during one of their spawning attempts yielding 23,000 animals. The Sea Center
was able to accommodate 120 of those individuals who are currently housed in
one of our troughs on exhibit. After the inclusion of 3 successful spawnings
from BML in 2020, the WACBP is currently rearing 38 cohorts from 2001 F1’s to
2020 juveniles.
120 White Abalone Individuals From 2020 Cohort on March 2, 2021
Photo By: Nora Frank
Our efforts don’t stop here. There have already been several spawning
attempts in 2021 among the WARC and 8 partner facilities are currently
awaiting a successful spawn with larval culture capacities that can
accommodate over 8 million individuals this year. Partners from UCD-BML are
also continuing research and development of sperm cryopreservation methods to
produce a repository of sperm for future spawning events. Another research
study carried out by UCD-BML supported by Ocean Protection Council is a study
to understand how white abalone captive breeding and stocking efforts will
fare in the face of ocean acidification and temperature dependent diseases,
withering syndrome (WS). There are a number of other research studies being
conducted and the prospects for more outplanting events are high. I look
forward to sharing more in the future. Please feel free to reach out if you’d
like to know more or if something in particular sparked interest.