It is probable that gabbit eggs are taken from the ovaries of slaughtered females, like black caviar is from beluga sturgeons. It would be hopelessly inefficient and therefore unprofitable to gather them up from the water.
As for how gabbits breed...let's whittle down the list. There are several main methods on Earth.
Internal Fertilisation, in which one parent deposits its gametes into the other, and fertilisation occurs within the body of one or both (in the case of hermaphrodites) parents. There are then three modes of gestation:
Vivipary: the embryo develops inside the parent within a special uterine organ, and is born live (ideally). The most advanced known form of vivipary has the embryo develop a placenta and umbilical chord to facilitate the exchange of nutrients, oxygen and waste products between the blood of the offspring and the blood of the parent, we see this in the Eutheria (placental mammals) and many sharks. A less advanced form has the parent give birth to the foetus before a placenta is required, and the offspring continues development in another environment, as in marsupials. An even less advanced "form" is-
Ovovivipary: the offspring are brought to term within the body of the parent, but within an egg. The egg provides nourishment (the yolk) while the parent provides gaseous exchange. The offspring hatch just before birth or immediately after laying.
Ovipary: Internal fertilisation, but the eggs are soon after laid, and development occurs within the egg, with its own yolk sack for nourishment and takes care of its own gaseous exchange.
External fertilisation in which eggs are released into a medium, as far as I can tell exclusively water, as are sperm. Fertilisation takes place in the medium, outside of the bodies of the parents. This is a form of ovipary, though sperm and eggs may be released into the water column for random fertilisation, or mounting may occur, and eggs are fertilised as they emerge from the female (spawning).
Now, which can apply to gabbits? What do we know about gabbits?
1. Where they live. Gabbits are amphibious. They live in water, where all strategies are feasible, and can come onto land, only externally fertilised eggs are infeasible. Live birth in fully aquatic groups, such as cetaceans and ichthyosaurs, is usually done in the water. But gabbits are not fully aquatic, they can come onto land. Many aquatic mammals can come onto land, and that is where they pup (seals, otters etc). Some sharks are also viviparous.
The eggs laid by reptiles would drown in water, which is why all other aquatic reptiles can and did come out of the water to deposit their eggs. If gabbits are egg-laying, do they spawn in water? They are like amphibians, and if gabbits are of a lineage that has never yet left the water entirely, this is likely. Do they lay eggs on land? If their ancestors were fully terrestrial and gabbits have returned to the water, this is more probably. We know neither, so we can conclude the neither, though if they can come onto land despite living their lives in water, the latter is more probable.
2. Where they reproduce. Gabbits swim upriver to the Mongo's source, Ma'Spa. A freshwater environment that is strong evidence that they spawn in the waters of Ma'Spa. However, they may pup on the shores of Ma'Spa, or lay eggs like turtles.
3. That Munch is male, and these eggs will allow him to repopulate gabbits. But we don't know if the eggs are already fertilised or not. He may fertilise the eggs himself if they require it. Being male, it would seem to rule out ovovivipary and vivipary, but no. In seahorses and pipefish, the male gives birth to the young because the female deposits eggs into his pouch to develop. We do not know if gabbits do the same. So if the eggs are unfertilised there is external fertilisation, and if it is internal gabbits must exhibit male pregnancy. If they are already fertile, it makes no difference to the choices any of the choices. Unless internal fertilisation requires an ovipositor, Munch will not be able to impregnate himself without equipment. Personally, I think the whole male pregnancy thing is unlikely in gabbits, so if the eggs are unfertilised, fertilisation must be external. Earth caviar is roe, and roe is ripe fish eggs, removed from the ovaries of the fish, making them unfertilised. Gabbiar is likely to be the same.
4. The appearance of Gabbiwogs. Gabbit larbae metamorphose from gabbiwogs to full-grown gabbits. Gabbiwogs are clearly unable to come onto land, disproving the land eggs and land birth hypotheses, the closest Earth analogy of the gabbit life-cycle are amphibians. We now know for certain that gabbits breed only in the water, though this makes their ability to come on to land perplexing.
5. They have large eggs. By that I mean they are not microscopic. This is strong indication that they are eggs within which gabbiwogs grow, and not colossal ova, however it may be that some ova on Oddworld are very large. Even the ovum of a human being is the largest cell. The first divisions of the zygote result in many smaller cells of the same mass. We can see this in frog spawn, but frog spawn is protected by a clear jelly, and if gabbiar is like caviar, it is not like frogspawn. This development would have to occur within a parent host. Either that, or gabbit eggs are much more like fish eggs. Judging by their analogy to Earth caviar, a deliberate comparison by OWI, they are true eggs. This rules out vivipary.
6. These eggs can be kept viable and dormant in cold storage (refrigeration) and/or anaerobic environments (the can). Otherwise Munch's quest was fairly pointless, and that doesn't seem to be OWI's style. Eggs, ova and embryos may be stored this way on Earth, so it does not help us.
So, we have ruled out vivipary (live birth) and spawning on the land, so all I've managed to do is eliminate what nobody expected, but now we have good reason to rule out those alternatives without official word from OWI. I have also shown that both other internal fertilisation methods, ovipary and ovovivipary, are unlikely, since gabbiar probably requires fertilisation by Munch. This most likely rules out ovipary, meaning for it to require internal fertilisation Munch must practice a form of ovoviviparous male pregnancy, and rules out ovipary (why lay eggs into the male to be fertilised only for him to lay them again straight away?).
So, this proves that, unless basic non-queen reproduction on Oddworld is completely upside-down, gabbits practice external fertilisation. The only question is: do they spawn like fish or frogs?
I was off my head with sleep-deprivation towards the end of this. If anything does not make any sense whatsoever, I apologise and will correct it in the morn- er, afternoon.
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