While red abalone were once abundant throughout California, they have long been in decline due to overfishing and environmental changes. California Sea Grant-funded researchers identified conditions that promote consistent recruitment, but also found that prolonged heat stress can cause red abalone recruitment to fail, in a new study published in the Journal of Shellfish Research last month.

California Sea Grant is pleased to announce six new research projects aimed at restoring California’s kelp forests. The newly funded projects in the 2020 Kelp Recovery Research Program total $2.1 million, funded jointly by California Sea Grant and the California Ocean Protection Council, in collaboration with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

In a new report published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), California Sea Grant and Alaska Sea Grant contributed a case study to highlight the approach Sea Grant extension personnel take in working with fishing communities and the seafood direct marketing information products they have created since the mid 1990s.

In a study led by California Sea Grant Extension Specialist Theresa Talley, researchers found that nearly a quarter of fish sampled from a creek that flows into San Diego Bay contain microplastics. This work, which was recently published in the journal PLOS ONE, examined plastics in coastal sediments and three species of fish.

A Sea Grant team of legal and aquaculture experts has released a report detailing eight case studies that identify challenges to the shellfish aquaculture industry in the United States. The project was funded through Sea Grant's 2017 national investment in aquaculture.