Since the start of the pandemic, LightHawk — a non-profit that uses volunteer general aviation pilots to enhance conservation — has maintained missions at 86% of pre-Covid levels, even without the ability to take passengers up in the air.
Many pilots have flown missions with GoPro cameras, providing virtual flight tours and helping land trusts complete deadline-sensitive monitoring.
Recent flights, however, included close to 12,000 passengers — endangered abalone.
Pilots Dave Houghton, David Shapiro, and Greg Vernon transported close to 12,000 endangered white abalone from captive breeding programs at Bodega Marine Lab and Moss Landing Marine Lab in northern California to facilities in southern California, in preparation for being outplanted to their rocky reef homes off the coast of Los Angeles and San Diego counties.
“These flights saved hours of travel and time packed in bags in coolers, greatly reducing the stress levels for these marine snails,” Lighthawk officials said.
The Bay Foundation’s Southern California White Abalone Restoration Project is part of a statewide collaboration dedicated to the restoration of federally endangered white abalone. Once a key player as grazers and ecosystem engineers in coastal waters ranging from Point Conception, California, to Baja California, Mexico, white abalone are a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) “Species in the Spotlight” — one of eight species considered the most at risk of extinction in the near future.
Many of these abalone will be released to the wild this spring, and the rest will be fed a steady stream of kelp before their own release to the ocean in the coming year or two, officials report.