Nancy Caruso: Photo Credit N/A

Their distinctive hole-punched shells are still familiar, but the creatures that live inside them — abalone — have nearly vanished from Orange County shores. Marine biologist Nancy Caruso says she has a plan for bringing them back: let school children grow them in the classroom. The first step will be capturing as many as 20 of the few remaining green abalone off Orange County and testing them for disease.

Nobody is restocking in Southern California,” she said. “I’d be the only one doing it.”

Caruso received a special permit from state Fish and Game to catch green abalone, and, with her team of divers,

plans to do so within weeks. If the agency gives the all-clear, Caruso wants to set up abalone-growing tanks in

Orange County schools, much as she’s done in past years with giant kelp

See here for more: http://greenoc.freedomblogging.com/2010/01/15/how-to-save-dwindling-abalone-grow-them-in-school/18713/