Commercial Urchin Diving

[Kquim]

I’m an unrestricted commercial SCUBA diver with 2 years experience diving in the Aquaculture industry. I’m currently working for an Aquaculture company in Newfoundland, Canada but am looking for a change of pace and change of scenery. If anyone is looking for a diver to help with urchins I’d be more than willing to help and move to any location required, regardless of country or province/state.

If you’re a diver who is currently in the commercial urchin diving industry and looking for a change, or in need of a constant pay cheque ($300/day average, 80 hours bi-weekly guaranteed) please contact me and perhaps we could arrange something.

 

[Rich Keller]

I have never heard of commercial urchin diving or commercial scuba diving for that matter. What exactly are you doing?

 

[Peter_C]

Urchin divers around here are very small outfits. They use boats in the 20-30ft range, and either go out solo, or work with one or two other people. They work whenever they can get out for a small paycheck. The urchin populations are dwindling around here. This video is an interesting glimpse into a commercial urchin divers experiences.

[video=youtube;OfyVbqS7W-M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfyVbqS7W-M[/video]

 

[Rich Keller]

After my post yesterday I looked up urchin diving and everything I saw said they were a blight on the kelp. How can they be dwindling and still a problem for the kelp? Is it just one or two types of urchin that are being harvested? If so what types and what is being done about the other types to prevent the kelp destruction?

 

[Peter_C]

From what I understand the smaller SoCal urchins are devastating the kelp fields. Dr Bill would be the foremost expert for that.

Then there is the North Coast where the larger urchins seem to be harvested fairly regularly, and urchin divers are able to clear large amounts of underwater terrain of them.

Of course that is just hearsay from local urchin divers so what do I know.

 

[joecwazy]

In Southern California the purple sea urchin Stronglyocentrotus purpuratus is the main mover and shaker in creating urchin barrens. Although CA DFG regulates them under the same license the only real market for these guys is scientific-we ship out hundreds of these things to universities, colleges etc. Now, the red sea urchin is the main species for the uni trade-it does sometimes reach plague proportions but not as commonly as the purples. Also urchins are ripe(and saleable) for only part of the year.