Venter, LAlfaro, ACLindeque, JZJansen van Rensburg, PJ2025-04-152025-04-152024-01-31New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, ISSN: 0028-8330 (Print); 1175-8805 (Online), Informa UK Limited, 59(1), 146-163. doi: 10.1080/00288330.2023.22979120028-83301175-8805http://hdl.handle.net/10292/19081Abalone is a gourmet seafood with a high commercial value, particularly when obtained as a live product. During live transportation, abalone encounter stressors causing biochemical modifications to tolerate the changes. Using semi-targeted metabolomics, this study characterised the left and right gill metabolite profiles of Blackfoot abalone, Haliotis iris, following transportation (48 h) and recovery (48 h). This study reports the association between left and right gill metabolites, to enhance our physiological understanding of the interplay between gills. The left gill metabolites are mainly active following transportation, while both gills partake in the metabolite response following recovery. Transportation necessitated increased metabolites linked to the glycolysis pathway, the Krebs cycle, amino acid, and nucleotide metabolism, for energy production, achieved via aerobic and anaerobic pathways. The recovery phase supported the replenishing of glycogen, triglycerides, and protein stores, albeit metabolic homeostasis was not achieved following two-days of water immersion recovery. This study showcases the well-adapted metabolic mechanisms implemented by H. iris in response to transportation stress and show that metabolites are in the process of returning to the same concentrations as measured pre-transport stress. The findings herein can be applied to improve animal health during transport and subsequent survival, which in-effect supports profitability.© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/37 Earth Sciences31 Biological Sciences41 Environmental SciencesNutrition1.1 Normal biological development and functioning04 Earth Sciences05 Environmental Sciences06 Biological SciencesMarine Biology & Hydrobiology31 Biological sciences37 Earth sciences41 Environmental sciencesJournal ArticleOpenAccess10.1080/00288330.2023.2297912