The First International Symposium on Abalone Biology, Fisheries and Culture was held in La Paz, Mexico in November 1989. In the closing session of that symposium it was decided to hold the second abalone symposium in Australia in 1993 or 1994. Subsequently, Hobart was chosen as the site and 7-11 February 1994 as the date of the second symposium.

The majority of the papers presented at the first symposium, as well as several invited reviews, were published in book form (Shepherd et al. 1992). This book has become a major reference for abalone workers. Partly because of the long period between the first symposium in 1989 and publication of the book three years later, it was decided to expedite publication of papers from the second symposium by publishing them in special issues of two internationally recognised journals: Aquaculture and the Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research. These two journal issues will be published in early 1995, approximately 12 months after the symposium.