Northern abalone  (Haliotis kamtschatkana)

Range

Found along the Pacific coast of America from Sitka Island, Alaska, in the north, to Turtle Bay, Baja California in the south (1).

Habitat

Aggregations of northern abalone can be found along coastal waters where there is good water circulation, clinging to rocks amongst kelp beds (1) (4). Adults are typically found within 10 m of the surface, although there are reports of them as deep as 100 m (3) (6). Abalone larvae are free-swimming for the first week to ten days of life, before settling to the bottom and becoming more sedentary (3) (5). Unlike adults that prefer to settle amongst and feed on large brown algae such as kelp, juveniles tend to cluster around crustose red algae patches, and migrate much more than adults (2).

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