The black abalone (Haliotis cracherodii) is a species of large edible sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Haliotidae, the abalones. This species is relatively small compared with most of the other abalone species from the eastern Pacific, and it has a relatively smooth dark shell. This used to be the most abundant large marine mollusk on the west coast of North America, but now, because of overfishing and the Withering Syndrome, it has much declined in population and the IUCN Red List has classed the black abalone as Critically Endangered.