A list of threatened species were released at the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Montreal, Canada December 9, 2022.
- The list has shown what overconsumption and unsustainable harvesting can do to plants and animals around us.
- As many as 44% of all abalone shellfish species are now threatened with extinction according to the assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Abalone species
- Abalone species are among the world’s most expensive seafoods and are considered a culinary delicacy.
- Abalone is sold live in the shell, frozen, or canned and is revered for its sweet, salty, and buttery taste.
- Abalones reflect humanity’s disastrous guardianship of our oceans in microcosm: overfishing, pollution, disease, habitat loss, algal blooms, warming and acidification, to name but a few threats.
- Abalone is a large marine gastropod mollusk that lives in coastal saltwater.
- A member of the Haliotidae family, it ranges in size from 4 to 10 inches.
- Like other univalve snails, it has a single shell on top and uses a large foot to cling to rocks and eat algae.
