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Continued Declines Of Black Abalone Along The Coast Of California: Are Mass Mortalities Related To El Nino Events?, Peter Raimondi, C M. Wilson, Richard E. Ambrose, John M. Engle, Todd Minchinton

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

The intertidal black abalone Haliotis cracherodii has experienced mass mortalities along the coast of California, USA, since the mid-1980s. Mortality is due to infection by a pathogen that leads to a fatal wasting disease called Œwithering syndrome¹, where the foot of the abalone atrophies until it can no longer adhere to the substratum. Massive die-offs due to withering syndrome were first noted on the Channel Islands in 1986, and by 1992 withering syndrome was observed near Point Conception on the mainland and was suspected to be spreading northward up the coast of California. The timing of the initial mass mortalities …