Abstract
Abalone are dioecious broadcast spawners. The eggs hatch into planktonic larvae which develop and swim for a few days to a few weeks before becoming competent to settle. Competent larvae undergo settlement after contacting an appropriate chemical cue. In nature, abalone larvae settle primarily on crustose coralline algae (CCA) and remain there for a few months. The settlement process is triggered by external chemical cues that require contact from the larva, and two putative inducer molecules have been identified. The question of whether the inducers are produced by CCA or by their surface microbes has not been unequivocally resolved, but the weight of evidence supports CCA as the likely source. The recent progress in understanding feeding ecology of post-larval and early juvenile abalone has indicated that CCA provide sufficient food sources for abalone at least until several mm in shell length.
