Peer review report forblack abalone critical habitat designation:

Biological Report

This final Peer Review Report summarizes the comments submitted by peer reviewers on the draft biological report, prepared in support of the proposed rule to designate critical habitat for the endangered black abalone under section 4 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The draft biological report was sent to the following four peer reviewers in October 2010:

  • John Engle, Associate Research Biologist, UC Santa Barbara
  • David Lindberg, Professor, UC Berkeley
  • John Pearse, Professor Emeritus, UC Santa Cruz
  • Pete Raimondi, Professor, UC Santa Cruz

These four peer reviewers are considered experts on abalone, with several years of experience conducting field research and monitoring ofblack abalone in California. Two of the reviewers provided comments on the draft biological report. One of the two reviewers who responded stated that the report was strong. The other reviewer who responded stated that his comments were submitted as part of the public comments submitted by the Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network (MARINe). He provided MARINe’spublic comments as his peer review comments. The peer review comments, as well as all of the public comments, were considered in the final biological evaluation and final black abalone critical habitat designation. Responses to the peer review and public comments will be provided in the final black abalone critical habitat designation, due to be published in the Federal Register in July 2011.

Black abalone life history and status

The following are the peer reviewer’s comments (essentially the MARINe’s public comments) on the black abalone life history and status section of the draft biological report:

  • Habitat: The following terms should be defined: high intertidal zone, middle intertidal zone, and low intertidal zone. Also, black abalone can be found in the high intertidal zone, but are predominately found in the middle intertidal zone.
  • Food resources: Although Nereocystisleutkeana is seen along central California, Macrocystispyrifera and Egregiamenziesii still seem more prominent that Nereocystis in central California habitats (between Santa Cruz and Point Conception).

Geographical area occupied by the species and specific areas within the geographic area occupied

The draft biological report included a description of each of the 20 occupied specific areas considered for designation as critical habitat. The descriptions included information from black abalone monitoring studies. Thepeer reviewer/MARINeprovided corrections to the citations for data collected at long-term monitoring sites along the California coast, as well as updated monitoring data collected since 2009. The peer reviewer/MARINe also provided language describing the history of long-term monitoring site establishment and recommended that the information be included prior to the specific area descriptions.

Final Peer Review Report for Black Abalone Critical Habitat Biological Report Page 1 of 1