A major hurdle in saving endangered Pinto abalone is the lack of an efficient, cost-effective way to detect where they live and thrive throughout the Salish Sea, which brings us to an exciting project being led by Dr. James Dimond of Western Washington University.
The current method for detecting abalone populations is to take a dive crew out on a boat and send them down in search of these cryptic endangered snails. It’s a laborious and expensive process that puts a pretty hard limit on how much ground a dive team can efficiently cover.
Dimond’s team will test a method that involves collecting water from multiple locations and sampling the water for abalone DNA to determine if abalone are present. SeaDoc’s contract photographer for the project joined the team in the field this spring, which you can see below!
A one-year old pinto abalone measures barely as big as a fingernail. It is one of 10,000 juveniles reared in the hatchery that will be released into Puget Sound over the month of April by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife as part of the animal's recovery program. Photo by Gemina Garland-Lewis
A tank of fresh seawater holds the PVC tubes with the abalone inside for transport.
The WDFW dive team in the water, ready to release 2,000-3,000 individual abalone at each outplant site.
A wild adult pinto abalone is collected as broodstock to bring back to the hatchery. Although spanning from Alaska to Baja California, this species is listed as endangered in its Washington range. Collecting a small number of adults each season helps restoration efforts by providing genetic diversity during the breeding process.