Are abalone vulnerable to overfishing?
A. Abalone are easily overfished as was seen in central and southern California. They have slow growth, infrequent reproductive success, vulnerability to fishery-related injuries and poaching, and high mortality of young. They also need relatively high densities for successful reproduction. These factors limit the ability of abalone to withstand heavy fishing pressure. Great care will be needed to prevent the northern California red abalone fishery from joining all the abalone fisheries that have collapsed throughout the world.
