Review of the technical challenges facing aquaculture of the European abalone Haliotis tuberculata in Ireland Colin Hannon • Rick A. Officer • Jean Le Dorven Received: 8 February 2012 / Accepted: 11 August 2012 / Published online: 28 August 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012 Abstract Insufficient supply of available market size abalone from the wild stocks has resulted in increasing efforts since the early 1990s to culture this valuable marine shellfish. Despite significant financial investment and the establishment and expansion of farms around Europe, the production of a saleable end product has remained undefined. The technical barriers to producing viable juvenile abalone spat still impair growth of the industry in Ireland. Critical developments required in the industry are identified. Uptake of these developments from research remains slow due to the trial-and-error approach taken by operators. Using technologies and procedures from producing countries and imple- menting them into Irish culture conditions will aid the development and expansion of the industry. Keywords Abalone Á H. tuberculata Á Postlarvae Á Ulvella lens Á Artificial diets Introduction Global production of wild caught and cultured abalone reached 22,600 metric tonnes in 2002, over 8,600 metric tonnes was farmed, and the total value of the production was estimated as approximately $0.8 Billion USD in 2002 (Gordon and Cook 2004). Six years later in 2008, the total available amount of abalone to market was 44,510 metric tonnes, almost double the figure in 2002 and a reported increase in farmed production of 350 % in the same time period (Cook and Gordon 2010; FAO 2010). A decline in yields from wild fisheries triggered a rapid development of abalone aquaculture in the early 1990s, and cultivation is widespread in many countries (Gordon and Cook 2001; Hahn 1989; Huchette et al. 2004). C. Hannon (&) Á R. A. Officer Marine and Freshwater Research Centre, Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, Galway, Ireland e-mail: colin.hannon@ireland.com J. Le Dorven Boet Mor Seafoods Ltd, Connemara, Galway, Ireland 123 Aquacult Int (2013) 21:243–254 DOI 10.1007/s10499-012-9584-7