Conservation

As one of our pillars, conservation of marine ecosystems and life is very important not only to us, but for our future. We are constantly searching for opportunities to get involved and how we can better help our oceans.

Unfortunately due to the pandemic in 2020, previous conservation projects were put to a halt as the aquarium closed. Now, in 2022, as we have our systems online and are continuing to grow our team, we are looking towards the future and ways we can reintroduce conservation efforts to our marine center.

Abalone

Abalone are a type of gastropod shellfish (large marine snail). They are known for the colorful inside of their shell, referred to as mother of pearl, and for their flavorful meat. They have very slow growth rates, predation rate is high when they are small and food sources are limited by ocean temperatures and kelp growth, which is their primary food source. Abalone play an important ecological role in ensuring the resiliency of our marine ecosystems by
helping to stabilize kelp forests and rocky reefs.

Most people don't remember how many abalone there used to be. According to CDFW there has to be a minimum of 2000 abalone per hectare to maintain a viable reproductive population (because they have to be within 1 meter to spawn successfully). This works out to 1 abalone per 54 square foot or about the size of a car. The height of the commercial abalone industry was 1950-1960 with 44,000,000 lbs harvested. The limit for commercial abalone divers was 140 dozen/day (1440 abs)!

Over a 100 year period, we decimated the 7 species of abalone in California through recreational take, commercial take, and then a disease (withering syndrome). It was thought that "we could not ever possibly run out of abalone". This can never be uttered again for any natural resource.

Green abalone are currently at less than 1% of their baseline densities (reported by CDFW 2002). We are left with 2 endangered species, 3 species of concern and 2 species in decline. There is currently no take of abalone allowed in California anywhere in the state for any reason.

“Together we nearly fished abalone to extinction in CA, Together, we can bring them back."

Green Abalone Restoration Project

The Green Abalone Restoration Project is community based project to restore green abalone where the animals are being raised in public aquariums and classrooms to educate 1,000,000 people about abalone.
There are 6 public aquarium partners and many school partners where 30,000 kids will raise abalone in their classrooms.
The PMSC has passed its 4 year sabellid free inspection from the Department of Fish & Wildlife to become an abalone holding facility.
The PMSC has received its first batch of of juvenile green abalone to raise!*

*Pre-covid, we currently do not have any abalone but are looking into getting involved once more.