Donate Now to the Pinto Abalone Campaign!

Bring Back a Salish Sea Native!

2,500 Pinto abalone will be released to the wild in March, 2011 in a tour de force operation involving conservation genetics, modern-day hatcheries, fine-tuned science and hard-scrabble organizing.  Our goal:  rebuild the Salish Sea’s only native abalone population – the mighty Haliotis kamtschatkana – so that, once again, pinto abalone can graze our subtidal waters and successfully reproduce in the wild.

Photo Josh Bouma

The picture above recounts the tale of the 1st restoration outplant in 2009 – 1,200 abalone spawned and reared in Mukilteo and Port Gamble greet a larger, Technicolor world of pink crustose coralline algae.  Eyes popping, tentacles aquiver, they emerge onto a scene of impossible delights. Imagine, for a moment, living in a conventional white laboratory tank and awakening one day amid the glories of the San Juan Archipelago.  It is still possible for us to work these kinds of wonders and keep an iconic species from blinking out – on our watch. 

The 2,500 abalone slated for release in March are strong, healthy, genetically diverse and ready to brave this new world.

Please donate now to support abalone recovery today.  The abalone campaign runs February 1 – March 31 with a goal of raising $50,000.  Every dollar counts and Puget Sound Restoration Fund will match donations up to $25,000.  Who knows…If we successfully re-establish dense, healthy aggregations of abalone, 50 years from now they might grace our dinner plates again.

Current Status:
Pinto abalone are currently considered functionally extinct in Washington waters.  There are too few left in the wild to reproduce successfully and we have reached the point where recovery is not possible without human intervention.

In 2011, partners are poised to conduct the largest abalone release effort to date.  A cross-disciplinary team has been working for over eight years to develop hatchery systems, improve spawning techniques, and ensure genetic fitness in order to safely produce juvenile abalone for re-introduction to the San Juan Islands.  Raising abalone that are big enough and resilient enough to survive in the wild takes an additional 1.5 – 2 years of rearing, feeding and careful husbandry.  The 2011 outplant is the culmination of this endeavor.  

The state’s fiscal crisis is threatening continuity of this program.  WE NEED YOUR HELP to hold the course. Please donate now.

Your donations will fund the reintroduction of 2,500 abalone in March, identification of two new outplant sites, follow-up surveys, and preparation for an even bigger outplant in 2012.

NEW:
Documentary video on our abalone recovery efforts.

Abalone outplanted in Puget Sound!

Canada lists northern abalone as 'endangered'!