"White abalone supported a brief but intense commercial fishery in southern California during the 1970's. The fishery was historically managed using size limits and seasons, but such methods failed because they did not account for density-dependent reproduction and assumed regular successful recruitment. Overfishing reduced numbers of this bottom-dwelling species to very low levels, resulting in a fragmented population. Results from remotely operated vehicle (ROV) surveys and population viability analyses suggested that the remaining individuals were too far from potential mates to successfully reproduce in the wild (Tegner and Hobday 2000; Stierhoff et al. 2012). Fishery closure in 1997 has not reversed this status. In 2001, white abalone was the first marine invertebrate to be listed as endangered under the ESA, a protective step that managers hoped would help white abalone to recover"--page 2, paragraph 1.

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)