Los Angeles Times. (November 7, 2019) “Can the long-lost abalone make a comeback in California?” Retrieved November 10, 2019, 

https://www.latimes.com/projects/california-abalone-species-recovery/

The abalone shells used to be extremely populous along in the California coast throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century however with increased ocean acidification and overfishing it’s numbers dwindled. Before their near extinction, the abalone was a major aspect of California culture, more specifically Mexican and Native-American culture in which the shells were used for art and trading. By the time environmentalists were able to pass any significant regulations about hunting the organisms in opposition to the hundreds of abalone-fishermen who were financially dependent on these creatures, the population was already too low to recover. Scientists are currently working to raise the extremely sensitive organisms in captivity in hopes of reintroducing it into California waters. Over the past few years they have been practicing raising and releasing the abalone into the wild to ultimately restore the whole ecosystem.

This article was definitely an example of a great success story for environmental science and more specifically for endangered species. I was surprised to hear how advanced the systems of breeding for abalone were as projects like this one generally seem to have difficulty getting funding. Although scientists have been successful in somewhat repopulating the coasts with abalone, they still face the challenge of their dying food source; the kelp forests in which the growth has been stunted with the sudden increase of water pollution. With the amount of financial aid that the biologists have received so far, hopefully in the future there can be more effort towards restoring the kelp forests partnered with stricter regulations about water pollution.