Northern Abalone Worksheet

Use the Links for Abalone Worksheet to find the answers for the following questions.

1.     Why do you think that the abalone looks like a rock?

2.     Look at the taxonomy for the abalone. Fill in the right hand column and describe what each label means. For example, Animalia, means that it is an animal, and the family name “Haliotidae” means that it resembles an “ear” or “sea ear”. What do the other categories in this taxonomy chart mean?

3.    Where are Northern (Pinto) Abalones located in British Columbia?

4.    What are the holes on the shell for?

5.    What does abalone eat?

6.    How does it eat?

7.    What animals are predators of the abalone?

8.    Draw a food web for the abalone.

9.    What does broadcast fertilization mean?

10.  What triggers fertilization to occur?

11. The larvae float in water then settle down. What triggers them to settle?

12.  Describe the environment that abalone like to live in.

13.  Why do you think that abalone would like to live at Race Rocks?

14.  Find some pictures of abalone from the websites you have visited and label the interior parts of the abalone.

15.  How does the abalone detect predators?

16.  Describe different ways the abalone may protect itself from predators?

17.  How can you distinguish the Northern (Pinto) abalone apart from other abalone?

18.  Discuss why the Northern (Pinto) abalone is an endangered species and what caused the recent decline in the abalone population?

19.  What is being done to ensure the continued existence of the abalone?

20.  Why is it important that we do not allow any more harvesting of abalone?