Further to the Occurrence of Red Abalone, Haliotis rufescens, in British Columbia

Authors

  • N. A. Sloan Gwaii Haanas National Marine Conservation Area Reserve and Haida Heritage Site, Box 37, Queen Charlotte, British Columbia, V0T 1S0
  • D. C. McDevit Centre for Environmental and Molecular Algal Research, Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, E3B 5A3
  • G. W. Saunders Centre for Environmental and Molecular Algal Research, Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, E3B 5A3

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22621/cfn.v124i3.1079

Keywords:

Red Abalone, Haliotis rufescens, Northern Abolone, Haliotis kamtschatkana, giant kelp, Nereocystis leutkeana, indigenous people, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia

Abstract

We report on additional occurrences of Red Abalone (Haliotis rufescens Swainson, 1822) that bring the total to seven from British Columbia coastal waters. Possible causes of the presence of Red Abalone include northward (winter) transport via kelp rafts from the Oregon-California area. We tested this hypothesis by performing DNA barcoding analyses on a fragment of kelp holdfast on the surface of one such shell establishing its identity as Nereocystis luetkeana (Mertens) Postels & Ruprecht - a giant kelp with a hollow stipe terminating in a bulbous pneumatocyst (gas-filled float). The occurrence of Red Abalone due to natural processes, besides being important biogeographically, has had important implications for indigenous peoples' pre- and post-contact trade and material culture.

Downloads

Issue

Vol. 124 No. 3 (2010)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright for Canadian Field-Naturalist content is held by the Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club, except for content published by employees of federal government departments, in which case the copyright is held by the Crown. In-copyright content available at the Biodiversity Heritage Library is available for re-use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence. For usage of content at the BHL for purposes other than those allowed under this licence, contact us.

 

To request use of copyright material,  please contact our editor, Dr. Dwayne Lepitzki: editor -at- canadianfieldnaturalist -dot- ca