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The white abalone, scientific name Haliotis sorenseni, is a species of large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Haliotidae, the abalone.Rosenberg, G. (2014). Haliotis sorenseni. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=445362 on 2014-10-29
The white abalone is an endangered species in the United States; it may now have the smallest population of all eight of the abalone species on the west coast of North America.
In the most northerly part of the California range, white abalone were reported as being more common along the mainland coast. However, in the middle portion of the California range, they were noted to occur more frequently at the offshore islands, especially San Clemente and Santa Catalina Islands. At the more southerly end of the range, in Baja California, Mexico, white abalone were reported to occur more commonly along the mainland coast, but were also found at a number of islands including Isla Cedros and Isla Natividad.
It remains unknown whether this distribution pattern was a result of lack of suitable habitat along the mainland coast in the mid portion of the range, or was instead due to overfishing in these more accessible mainland regions.
Since the mid-1990s, extremely low numbers of isolated survivors have been identified along the mainland coast in Santa Barbara County and at some of the offshore islands and banks in the middle portion of the range, indicating the current range of white abalone in California may be similar to what it was historically.
No recent information on current range is available for Baja California. The white abalone population in Mexico is thought to be depleted based on commercial fishery data, but the status of the species in Mexico remains largely unknown.
[[File:Haliotis sorenseni 2.png|right|375px|thumb|California Commercial White Abalone Haliotis sorenseni Landings for 1972–1992. The price exponentially increased as catch decreased. Even taking fishing effort into account, the volume of abalone fished is inversely proportional to the price (power regression model, F40,2 = 139.96; p < 0.0001).
open squares – commercial catch per unit effort
left y axis – thousands of pounds of shell per vessel
filled circles – price of Haliotis sorenseni
right y axis – US$ per pound.]]
Considered a delicacy in California, white abalone, the rarest of the eight abalone species in the state, have declined due to poaching – the fishery was closed in 1996 – while at the same time, prices have escalated. Although white abalone were the first marine invertebrate on the United States Federal List of Endangered Species in 2001, the species could nevertheless become extinct unless extraordinary recovery measures are implemented. White abalone is being in order to produce young that can be placed back in the ocean, in hopes of bringing this species back to secure population levels before it becomes extinct. The White Abalone Restoration Consortium is a partnership with the Bodega Marine Laboratory University, The Cultured Abalone Farm, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Sea Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Southwest Fisheries Science Center on the Gaviota Coast which is studying the marine snail and restoring the wild populations. They are also collaborating in developing curriculum to educate the next generation about sustainable aquaculture and conservation.
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