ESA Outplanting Permit Application for White Abalone

NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region has requested a five-year enhancement permit to annually take larval, juvenile, and adult white abalone in California.

The original permit application was submitted on August 25, 2018 and posted for public comment on September 26, 2018. Since that date, the WCR has requested changes to the proposed action that are substantive enough to require additional public comment.

The purpose of the proposed work is to experimentally outplant white abalone along the Southern California Coast and determine which methods, locations, habitats, sizes, and densities are optimal for white abalone growth and survival. The activities would benefit the listed species by increasing numbers of white abalone in the wild and informing future large-scale outplanting efforts designed to create self-sustaining populations in locations where white abalone are at risk of being extirpated.