The white abalone , Haliotis sorenseni, supported valuable commercial fisheries only 30 years ago. In 2002, this species became the first marine invertebrate in the United States to achieve federal endangered species status. The overall goal of this project was to collect life history, genetic and disease susceptibility data that to support recovery.

Once harvested commercially, the white abalone (Haliotis sorenseni) is in danger of extinction and since 2002 has been under the protection of the federal Endangered Species Act. Recent failed efforts to find remnant populations in the species’ historical deep-seafloor habitats underscore the animal’s scarcity. In the time between when the grant for the project was written and funded, NOAA Fisheries halted the collection of wild white abalone for research. It now appears that species recovery is either going to happen on its own over the course of several or more decades, or captive-bred white abalone will have to be outplanted in the wild. Outplanting is not without its own set of risks, as it may erode genetic diversity or introduce the withering syndrome pathogen into previously uninfected deep-water refuges. Just as worrisome is the potential to unknowingly introduce previously unknown pathogens.