ESA Field Monitoring Permit Renewal for Black Abalone

NOAA Fisheries has issued a scientific research permit (Permit 18761-2R) to the University of California, Santa Cruz, under the Endangered Species Act. NOAA Fisheries requested public comment on the permit renewal application in July 2020; no public comments were received.

The University of California, Santa Cruz, requested to renew a research permit to monitor the status and trends of endangered black abalone at sites throughout California for an additional five years. Under the previous permit, researchers surveyed black abalone populations at long-term monitoring sites throughout California. The data collected informed the five-year status update for black abalone. Researchers also tested the feasibility of recruitment modules and were able to successfully deploy and maintain the modules at a few sites.

This permit renewal will allow researchers to track population trends at long-term monitoring sites and deploy recruitment modules at a few sites for an additional five years. The research activities will benefit black abalone by providing valuable long-term monitoring data on black abalone numbers, sizes, spatial distribution, habitat, recruitment, genetic diversity, and health throughout the coast. These data will inform our assessments of black abalone status and recovery