The California sea hare (Aplysia californica) is an important biomedical model for studies of neurobiology, electrophysiology, learning, and memory due to its well-mapped large neurons and learning capabilities. The National Resource Center for Aplysia (NRA, University of Miami) maintains large stocks of live animals and relies on wild sources to maintain genetic diversity. This is risky, cost intensive, and requires labor. One solution to these problems is cryopreservation, which is the process of preserving genetic material, typically sperm, at cryogenic temperatures to be thawed and used at a later time. However, Aplysia californica presents additional challenges. For instance, the sperm cannot be extracted efficiently. Instead, early life stages are being used as an alternative substitute. In addition, the early life stages are packaged in egg capsules that are encased within an egg strand. The multiple layers of the egg strand, capsules, and larvae can make the transfer of cryoprotectants, heat, extraction of water, and prevention of ice crystal formation difficult. Vitrification is a specific type of cryopreservation in which freezing occurs so rapidly that ice crystals do not have time to form, resulting in an amorphous glass, minimizing damage to the cell within a sample. This method may be more effective than controlled-rate freezing when cryopreserving the early life stages of Aplysia californica. In preliminary experiments, egg strands with veliger-stage larvae were exposed to one of six types of vitrification solutions, loaded in an inoculation loop, plunged and stored in liquid nitrogen, and thawed in a 40°C artificial seawater bath. Several treatments contained larvae with moving cilia, suggesting survival. However, these larvae were damaged with broken shells, were irregularly shaped, or had ruptured velums suggesting they had experienced some ice crystal damage. The method used in this experiment is still preliminary, but the presence of larvae with moving cilia suggests that vitrification may prove to be a suitable method for cryopreserving the early life stages of Aplysia californica.