Beautiful to look at, tasty to eat; there's plenty to like about abalone, the sea snails found along the Pacific. They've been liked a bit too much over the years... abalone were once regarded as inexhaustible in supply, and that turned out not to be true.
And climate change on top of overfishing could lead to the end of the creatures. Ann Vileisis considers creature and concerns about it in the book "Abalone: The Remarkable History and Uncertain Future of California's Iconic Shellfish."
The new book, on Oregon State University Press, is the subject of our chat with the author.