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NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center - Abalone tour : April 6, 2023

A friend of mine flew a LightHawk mission to San Diego delivering a couple million White Abalone embryos for a captive breeding project. I got to go on a tour of the lab at the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center that will be their new home for a few years.

NOAA White Abalone background info

Article from 2019 season

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Boring looking bag of water... with a quarter million eggs...

Growth stages chart

The eggs hatch in these trays

The healthy larvae swim through hoses to these buckets

After about a week, they're transfered to these trays for about a year

Then into these larger tanks until they're ready for release

About 2 years old

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3 years old

4 years old

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Grabbing one with a spatula for show and tell :)

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Abalone gonads... males are whitish and females grey-green

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Broodstock, 10 years old

Broodstock, 3 years old

Black Abalone

Rockfish

This one's eye bulge is the result of decompression syndrome