“…Throughout their life cycle, abalone dispersal is generally limited to small scales (10s-100s of meters) so that individual abalone reefs are effectively self-recruiting populations (Prince et al, 1987(Prince et al, , 1988aMcShane et al, 1988;Brown, 1991;Shepherd and Brown, 1993;Temby et al, 2007). Growth rates, the average maximum size attained, and the size of maturity are often highly variable over both local (100s-1000s m) and regional scales (100s km) (Leighton and Boolootian, 1963;Sloan and Breen, 1988;Prince, 1989;Day and Fleming, 1992;Nash, 1992;Naylor and Andrew, 2001).…”