Black abalone may be protected if endangered

Black abalone, while although considered the smallest of the large sea mollusk species, once flourished in plentiful abundance in the intertidal waters along the California coast.
But due to a combination of overfishing, disease and a sprawling otter habitat, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration proposed placing the black abalone on an endangered species list in January 2008.
NOAA Fisheries Service filed with the Federal Register Jan. 12 a proposed rule or petition to list black abalone as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The proposal comes after NOAA Fisheries Service considered the report of a scientific review team concluding that the species is at risk of extinction. Comments on this proposal must be received by April 10, according to the Federal Registry. A final approval would then come probably sometime at the end of the year, according to officials.
According to an LA Times article on a forum at fishpolitics.com, "The final decision, expected after a year of further study, would not have an immediate impact on the hunting of black abalone in California, which has been illegal here since 1993. But the listing could bring in federal money to help restore populations of the species, set aside critical habitat and impose criminal penalties for importing the mollusk from Mexico."
Decades ago, black abalone was known as the most abundant species of abalone from Northern Baja California, Mexico, to Monterey, Calif.
But "the scientific review team reported major declines in the population of black abalone, especially in the areas around the Channel Islands off Southern California," said Rod McInnis, Southwest Regional Administrator for NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service. “These proposed regulations seek federal protection for black abalone and requests input from the public in determining what areas might be included as critical habitat for the species.”
Since the 1980s, black abalone abundance has plummeted primarily from a bacterial disease known as withering syndrome.
Withering syndrome is a bacterium that affects the digestive system and causes the abalone to shrink. The bacterium increases in warmer waters (that reach 65 degrees Fahrenheit) that can be attributed to warm water currents such as from El Nino, which some say are early signs of the effects of global warming, according to an article published by National Geographic.
Other causes of the rapid population decline are likely due to historical overfishing, poaching and natural predation. NMFS has considered recent preliminary evidence which suggests a small disease resistant population may exist at San Nicolas Island. Even with this possibility, the likelihood that black abalone populations will continue to decline towards extinction (within the next 30 years) is very high.
If the listing under the ESA is passed this year, the black abalone would join the white abalone, which was placed on the endangered-species list by the National Marine Fisheries Service in May 2001.
"Estimates of where the white-abalone population stood 30 years ago run from 2.2 million to 4.2 million, but recently their population along the coast was estimated at just a couple thousand," according to an article in fishpolitics.com