OP
wetrat
Contributor
Uuuuuh, no thanks! No need to see a great white here!
OK to cut up black sea urchins?
- Thread starter wetrat
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
OP
wetrat
Contributor
ShakaZulu:
On the other hand..... I was thinking maybe diving at Guadalupe Island wearing a "steak suit."
Anybody remember back in the 70's when we were encouraged to bring hammers to PV and wipe out as many sea urchins as we could?Robert Phillips:As far as killing them, well it really depends on where you are. Don't do it in a Marine Reserve, but kill as many of them as you can anywhere elseThese things destroy kelp beds.
Times have changed...
wetrat:
Urchins with a high test diameter to spine length ratio are most likely not black (or Coronado) urchins. These urchins are subtropical and characteristized by relatively small tests and long spines that are rough if you run your finger down them. Urchins with larger tests and smaller spines as described here may be the red urchin (which looks black at depth without a light).
Rick Inman:
While true on the mainland in the days when sewage wastes offered the urchins a secondary food source after they'd devastated the kelp beds, this has not been true on the islands (at least the southern ones) unless they've been fished out of urchin predators like sheephead. It really irritates me when I see divers in our dive park killing any urchin to feed the fish. The high density of sheephead (and kelp bass and garibaldi) keeps a good control on the urchin populations here (except at night when the sheephead sleep and the black urchins are out and about).
In areas of the mainland and northern islands where sheephead have been fished out, urchin control might be a more reasonable thing.
OP
wetrat
Contributor
drbill:
Thanks Bill,
This is really good information. I will definitely pass it on because as divers I believe education is really our greatest tool to keep ocean ecosystems healthy. Also, I did a google image search and it looks like we cut up purple urchins. The proportions of the urchins in the pictures were identical to the ones I thought were black at the Coronado islands.
wetrat
There stupid sea urchins.......
saf_25
Contributor
I had also heard, and correct me if I'm wrong (Dr Bill, I'm sure you'd know this), that the urchins emit some sort of signal when they get harmed (ie - cut up) that tells the other urchins that danger is present. This signal causes them to release their gametes (reproductive "pieces") into the water, so injuring them actually results in greater populations. Is that just hogwash, or is there some truth to that?
Kayak Diver
Guest
There are so many urchins down there...don't know how a few Socal divers are going to make a huge dent in the population by having a little fish feeding fun. You guys must eat tofu and wear Burkenstocks. All the nice shiny plastic, nylon, and metal you take scuba diving does more harm to the environment than killing a couple of urchins. Not to mention all the fossil fuels you burned getting there...
saf_25:
Possible in some species, but I've personally never seen a gamete release in response to injuries to blue, red or black urchins.
Dr. Bill
Similar threads
- Sticky
