Black abalone used to be the most abundant shellfish clinging to the rocks in the intertidal zone from Baja California to Oregon. Now they are all but gone in the southern reaches of their range and beginning to disappear in the north, too.

The intertidal zone is the region where the surf meets the land. Organisms that live there are pounded by waves, blasted by sunlight, and endure wide fluctuations in temperature driven by the rise and fall of the tides.