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There is a company called Urchinomics that is catching the purple urchins, then feeding them in a land based environment, then selling them worldwide as high qu
by ryan_j_naughton 6y ago
There is a company called Urchinomics that is catching the purple urchins, then feeding them in a land based environment, then selling them worldwide as high quality uni.[1][2]
The reason this is critical is that purple urchins can effectively starve themselves and go into hibernation with a virtually empty body. This virtually empty body is not desirable for either (a) traditional fisherman or (b) any predators (e.g. even fish that eat urchin know to not eat the urchins that have overgrazed a kelp forest as they know they are empty.
If Urchinomics can get the unit economics to work out such that there is a financial incentive to catch a significant number of these urchin, that could change this situation.
[1] https://www.urchinomics.com/ https://www.urchinomics.com/
[2] https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/09/09/756929657/saving-californias-kelp-forest-may-depend-on-eating-purple-sea-urchins https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/09/09/756929657/sa...
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- tremon 6y agoIf there will be a financial incentive to catch a significant number of these urchin, they might die out too.
- nradov 6y agoThere are millions and millions of purple urchins along the California coast. Rocks in many areas are literally covered in urchins. In order to harvest them you have to pry them off one at a time so they're not going to die out that way.
- killion 6y agoThank you for sharing this, I hope they find a California location soon. Because they are filter-feeders I would guess they are as helpful as oyster farms for cleaning the water. As long as they are contained that is.