Washington State Department of Fish & Wildlife have proposed listing the Pinto Abalone (Haliotis kamtschatkana) as endangered locally. Though attempts at cultivation have been tried, they have not been considered successful at levels capable of sustaining the population.
Pinto Abalone have been in significant decline since the late 1980s. While there never was a commercial fishery for them, recreational divers harvested untold amounts, as the catch was never monitored. Habitat destruction also is understood to have played a role.
According to the WDFW web site (https://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/pinto_abalone/):
The overall goal of the abalone recovery team is to halt the declines of abalone populations in the Pacific Northwest and to return populations to self-sustainable levels. Such a long term goal requires a suite of interim goals and the development of numerous methodologies. To date, such interim goals have enabled the abalone recovery team to successfully:
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Develop hatchery and nursery programs for captive propagation and rearing of abalone.
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Develop protocols to maintain genetically diverse and disease-free families in restoration hatchery facilities.
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Conduct experimental outplants of juvenile hatchery reared abalone to assess the efficacy of outplants as a restoration strategy.
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Aggregate adult abalone in the wild to enhance reproductive potential and to assess this method as a restoration strategy.
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Outplant abalone post-larvae at experimental locations to assess this method as a restoration strategy.
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Draft a collaborative Pinto Abalone Recovery Plan for Washington.
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Launch a public outreach campaign targeting divers, schools, boaters, fishers and the general public.
This body of work represents nearly two decades of basic and applied science and has laid the foundation for increasing the scale of the abalone recovery effort. Such an effort will require a broad coalition of scientists, advocates, policymakers, and volunteers. For more information on this process please contact WDFW lead abalone biologist Michael Ulrich (hyperlink to : Michael.Ulrich@dfw.wa.gov).
WHAT YOU CAN DO: WDFW is soliciting any available data on the species, and seeks public comment on a proposal to list the pinto abalone as a State Endangered Species. Please consider attending one of the following public meetings:
December 4, 2018, 6:00 p.m.
Northwest Maritime Center
431 Water Street, Port Townsend, WA 98368
Or, submit comments and questions to:
WDFW, Fish Program, attention: Michael Ulrich
P.O. Box 43200
Olympia, WA 98504-3200
(360) 902-2737
Michael.Ulrich@dfw.wa.gov