Sex and the sea snail: how a plucky marine lab brought a mollusk back from the brink

Once abundant in California, the white abalone had all but vanished. Now, thanks to an innovative breeding program, it's staged a remarkable comeback

On a sunny January afternoon in Bodega Bay, some 70 miles north of San Francisco, the White Abalone Culture Lab is humming with activity.

It's spawning day. Alyssa Frederick, the lab's program director, invites me into an industrial room full of troughs and tubs of bubbling seawater. The abalone program is tucked away in the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory, a research facility devoted to studying ocean and coastal health. The goal is to bring the endangered sea snails, known for their iridescent shells and delicate meat, back from the brink.