Red Abalone talk

Kendall Smith (right) and fellow researchers pursuing the red abalone.

As part of its speaker series featuring young scientists, the Cape Perpetua Area Collaborative presents an online talk on red abalone on Saturday, Jan. 22, 10:30 a.m.

The speaker is Kendall Smith, a second-year Master’s student at the Marine Biology Graduate Program at the University of Oregon and an Oregon Sea Grant Natural Resource Policy Fellow.

Oregon’s red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) have been the target of a recreational trophy fishery since the 1950s, but following a perfect storm of negative environmental conditions, the fishery was closed in 2018 due to population concerns. Acquiring new information about red abalone biology and habitat, history of the fishery in Oregon, and genetic information, allows researchers and managers to work towards a conservation and fishery management plan. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) and Oregon Sea Grant have partnered to collaborate with university researchers, agency staff, and fishery participants to determine a framework for an environmentally conscious conservation and management plan for red abalone in Oregon.

Kendall Smith’s assignment and Master’s thesis focus on a collaboration with ODFW to research the red abalone population in Oregon for application in management and conservation. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Biology at the University of Oregon in 2017 and started working at ODFW as a shellfish biologist in Charleston in 2018, where she worked on sampling, monitoring and research of recreational and commercial shellfish fisheries.

To register for this event, go here.