OK to cut up black sea urchins?

[ChrisM]

There's a ton of feral cats up in Palos Verdes, you've probably seen them when you were gearing up at Malaga. They are definitely pests. Carry fleas, ticks, sh** on the expensive lawns. Last week, I caught one and cut it up and fed it it my dog, as I stroked my puppy's side and got great pics

It was so cool.... :yleyes:

 

[drbill]

Kayak Diver- among other things, urchins in healthy kelp forest ecosystems feed on drift and sloughed kelp matter. The detached blades get trapped by them and they clean up the "leaf litter" on the ocean floor. They are also food for other critters including several fish, lobster, etc. Their role within the ecosystem may not seem important to us humans, but it could be very important to ecosystem health.

The question for me is why kill something for pleasure or sport? Killing for food is an activity I can understand and support (and partake in), but not for "sport." Killing for ecological reasons (as in the Conservancy's removal of introduced feral goats while I was its V.P., or the early killing of urchins in over-populated barrens) is another thing I can support. But it shouldn't be for fun or pleasure IMHO.

 

[Kayak Diver]

There's a ton of feral cats up in Palos Verdes, you've probably seen them when you were gearing up at Malaga. They are definitely pests. Carry fleas, ticks, sh** on the expensive lawns. Last week, I caught one and cut it up and fed it it my dog, as I stroked my puppy's side and got great pics

It was so cool.... :yleyes:

When I was an undergrad, I knew several bio students that would hunt feral cats for fun on the weekends. They would walk for miles looking for cats to shoot. The cats were, and probably still are, wiping out the song bird population in the Great Valley.

You should probably cook the cats a little before feeding them to your dog. It might get sick. I can't feed them to my dog...he gets sick every time we give him somthing outside is normal diet. But our girl dog on the other hand can eat anything. Hmmm...wonder if she would like urchin...probably not. They're fish food.

In case your having trouble catching your dog some dinner, you can find feral cat traps at the following Internet site. All different sizes...for all different pests.

http://growersupply.com/live.html

 

[CaptAdam]

I dont see how cutting up urchins for hunting purposes poses a problem. Allowing the chum of the sea urchins to atract other fish.............Whats wrong with that........

If you got them,,,,,,,,,,,use them..........

 

[drbill]

CaptAdam- Depends on where you are. In a reserve, absolutely not. In a healthy kelp forest ecosystem, you shouldn't. In an urchin barren, I'd look the other way! But then those are usually red, purple or whites rather than blacks.

I guess you're saying anything out there is fair game for us to take. I've never quite understood that logic, but it is common in this and other cultures.

 

[PhotoTJ]

Like I mentioned,the backside of Anacapa! Purple shag carpet. I'd like to see 20 or so otters relocated there. In 6 months, they would be as fat as elephant seals, but hopefully that would give the kelp a chance to re-establish itself.

 

[Azza]

It’s all about natures balance. Nature likes to balance itself and this is evident in the whole “food chain” process, and also in human physiology.

We see it all the time in diving, in particular decompression theory. We descend to depth breathing compressed air/nitrox/trimix and nature tries to balance out the differences in gas partial pressures from what is in our bodies to what we are breathing, therefore we on and off gas.

It’s the same also with being in a warm house with a cold outside temperature. Open a window and all the hot air escapes and the cold air enters until it has balanced out.



It’s the same again with the “food chain” in that one thing grows far too fast if its natural predator is removed i.e. the urchins are growing out of control because their natural predators have been removed from the equation.

However Nature does try to fix this and when we humans come along and tamper with her efforts we screw it all up again.



So quite simply we should leave it to nature to fix the problem and stop interfering. What gives us the right to cause the death of another living organism simply for amusement? That has to be one of mankind’s greatest arrogances…

 

[drbill]

Like I mentioned,the backside of Anacapa! Purple shag carpet. I'd like to see 20 or so otters relocated there. In 6 months, they would be as fat as elephant seals, but hopefully that would give the kelp a chance to re-establish itself.

A few otters would do the trick, but I'll bet eliminating the fishing pressure on sheephead would produce a similar result. I don't remember seeing a lot of sheephead up there the times I've dived Anacapa... certainly nothing like our end of Catalina! Of course I did "enjoy" the opportunity to video urchin barrens up there to contrast with our dive park's fairly healthy kelp forests.

 

[PhotoTJ]

I've been giving this a little thought, a viable plan might work something like this; Have 1/4 of Anacapa a permanent preserve, divide the other 3/4 into 5 sections, and rotate them yearly for fishing. You would have a 4-year replenishment cycle.

Seems like it could work.

 

[drbill]

Anacapa is a pretty small area. Reserve size may need to be larger than just 1/4 of the coastline. I think the present marine reserve there is on that order.