Federal funding cuts threaten Bodega Marine Lab’s pioneering program to save rare white abalone

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

A groundbreaking program to rescue endangered white abalone at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Lab is now at risk, as proposed federal budget cuts threaten to end the funding that made the species’ comeback possible.

When Alyssa Frederick and her team at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory went to spawn white abalone on Jan. 7, it was almost as if the sea mollusk knew something was looming on the horizon.

“Usually we put them into the bucket of chemicals and I tell the team, ‘Go take a break, grab a slice of pizza or a cup of tea,’” Frederick, director of the lab said. “And I kid you not, within two minutes, the person watching them said, ‘They’re spawning!’”

It was a rare scene for a marine invertebrate on the brink of extinction starting a quarter century ago.

“They showed up,” Frederick said, radiating pride. “They did the best job.”

Now, efforts to rescue the endangered species are at risk after the Trump administration proposed to cut federal funding for all species recovery grants, which serve as the financial lifeblood for Frederick’s work at the lab.