Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 1 June 2001:
Vol. 292. no. 5522, p. 1625
DOI: 10.1126/science.292.5522.1625b
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

ScienceScope

U.S. officials this week added the white abalone, a California mollusk prized for its taste, to the government's endangered species list. Four years ago, biologists warned that the abalone was on the verge of becoming the first totally marine organism known to have been driven to extinction by overfishing (Science, 25 July 1997, p. 486). In an unusual move, the National Marine Fisheries Service declined to identify the mollusk's "critical habitat," fearing that poachers might use the information to clean out the estimated 3000 abalone that remain on deep-water reefs off California.

Figure 1

CREDIT: KEVIN LAFFERTY/USGS

Meanwhile, biologists are trying to raise the creatures in captivity. The Abalone Restoration Consortium last month reported that it had coaxed three captive abalones into producing 6 million fertilized eggs. Eventually, the group hopes to release 10,000 young abalones a year into the wild.

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)