DRAFT Periodic Status Review for Pinto Abalone (2025)

Pinto abalone Haliotis kamtschatkana are large marine snails that inhabit rocky reef and kelp forest habitats in the San Juan Islands and Strait of Juan de Fuca. They are the only species of abalone present in Washington State, and their grazing activities play a key role in kelp forest ecosystems. Prized for their meat and iridescent shells, the population in the state was severely reduced by a legal personal use fishery and illegal harvest that was commercial in scale. After a 1994 fishery closure, abalone populations in the state continued to dwindle. The size structure of remnant abalone showed the population was aging with little or no juveniles present. Populations were likely fished to such a low density that, as broadcast spawners, pinto abalone were not in sufficiently close proximity to allow for successful fertilization and significant reproduction. Accordingly, human intervention was likely necessary to increase densities to self-sustaining levels.

In 2002, WDFW, the University of Washington, Puget Sound Restoration Fund (PSRF), and NOAA formed a partnership with the goal of restoring pinto abalone through hatchery rearing and release of juveniles. In 2007, the first experimental releases were made. In 2019, pinto abalone was listed as endangered in the state of Washington by the Fish and Wildlife Commission. The 2019 status review found that the species was at risk of extinction due to low population density and from additional potential threats, including kelp forest habitat loss, disease, changing ocean conditions, illegal harvest, increased predation, or catastrophic oil spill. In 2024, these same threats remain. WDFW and partners released the Washington State Pinto Abalone Recovery Plan in 2022, with hatchery rearing and release as the keystone restoration strategy. The recovery plan also outlined the criteria for downlisting the species. Now in 2024, five years after the endangered listing, we seek to update the status of pinto abalone relative to those criteria.

We find that from 2019 to 2024, pinto abalone populations do not meet the criteria for downlisting to threatened or sensitive. Only one wild aggregation in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and none in the San Juan Islands, qualifies toward the goal of 30 wild aggregations identified in the 2022 Recovery Plan. At least five other aggregations have more than the minimum six individuals required, but do not qualify on the basis that their overall density is lower than the 0.3 abalone per meter squared requirement. The size structure of these wild abalone would qualify for downlisting to threatened, but not sensitive, because more than 20% of the individuals are smaller than 90 mm, a sign of recent reproduction. The overall population trend over the past 10 years is not increasing, however, and therefore this final criterion has not been met. On the basis of these findings, we recommend that pinto abalone retain its endangered status.

Despite the above recommendation to retain the endangered status, the outlook for Washington’s pinto abalone is more positive than it was five years ago. As of 2019, the partnership had not seen a juvenile wild abalone (<50mm shell length) for over 10 years. Since then, we have observed a small number of them. Our primary indicator of abundance, the San Juan Island index stations, had more abalone on or near the index stations in 2024 than the previous survey in 2017. This is the first time in the history of the index station surveys (which began in 1992) that the total number of observed abalone increased.

More importantly, three smaller abalone (<75mm) were observed on one of the stations, decreasing the average size/age of pinto abalone within the index station surveys for the first time. Although very limited in scope, any sign of natural reproduction is encouraging.

The progress toward recovery plan goals, particularly the success of the hatchery rearing and reintroduction program, is also cause for optimism. From 2009 through 2024, the partnership has released over 60,000 disease-free, genetically diverse juveniles to 37 sites in Washington. Production has been increasing rapidly, with two-thirds of those released in the last five years. 2024 alone saw the release of almost 13,000 juveniles to 18 sites, eight of which were newly established. Nine of the older sites now have aggregations of 20 - 180 hatchery reared adult abalone at a density that is likely sufficient for reproduction (note that hatchery-origin aggregations do not qualify toward downlisting criteria).

Perhaps most importantly, the partnership has grown in the last five years thanks to legislative funding that has allowed the program to expand in many ways. PSRF has established “satellite” juvenile rearing facilities with the Port Townsend Marine Science Center and the Seattle Aquarium. These facilities increase production, mitigate risk, and allow the public to see the program in action. Pass-through funds have been provided to the Makah Tribe, Samish Indian Nation, and Lummi Nation to increase tribal capacity for abalone restoration. Research projects with students at the University of Washington, Western Washington University, and other institutions have filled key knowledge gaps. To further illustrate the program’s successful expansion, prior to 2024, the WDFW-PSRF team had been the only team to release and monitor juvenile outplant sites. In 2024, three independent teams from the Samish Indian Nation, Seattle Aquarium, and Western Washington University established their own release sites for the first time. In 2025, these partner teams are monitoring their outplant sites, and plan to outplant again.

The partnership has made significant progress on filling research gaps since the last status review. The finding that juveniles released at age one instead of age two have similar survival (Sowul et al. 2025) has led to a more efficient utilization of space in the hatchery through mixed-age outplanting each year. We continue to investigate why some release sites have higher survival and retention of juveniles than others, including monitoring the first 48-72 hours post-outplant with time-lapse cameras to observe predation, as well as a project with University of Washington to monitor oceanographic conditions at several sites. PSRF continues to optimize growth and survival in the hatchery through experimentation with culture systems, feed regimens and tank microbiomes.

The partnership has many additional projects planned for the coming years, including: adding to the network of 10 original index stations that track wild aggregations (four new stations were added in 2024), and the expansion of monitoring and restoration into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, (which began with a focus on habitat surveys in the Eastern Strait in 2024). This expansion could eventually extend to the outer coast of Washington, pending the results of an environmental DNA study being conducted by the Makah Tribe. The partnership retains a goal of establishing a network of self-sustaining spawning aggregations in order to achieve downlisting criteria and to re-establish this species’ relationships with its ecosystem and the tribal and non-tribal communities of Washington State.