The waters off Southern California used to teem with white abalone, a large sea snail that clings to the rocks and has to be pried off with devices like crowbars. In 1990, they were legally protected from over fishing. Since then, matters are so much worse that extinction is a real possibility. Kevin Stierhoff at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla was lead author of a recent study for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
KCRW
