OK to cut up black sea urchins?

[drbill]

on the topic of urchins... if i grabbed one off our coast, can i straight eat it like sashimi?

You eat the gonads... if you're man (or woman) enough., I had my first taste of them back in the 60's on a marine biology field trip to the New Hampshire... it was Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis.

Remember... you may need a fishing license to harvest them.

Also keep in mind that there may be local pollutants that would affect their flesh.

 

[Mr Carcharodon]

Hmmmm... we were at the Coronados (Lobster Shack) in about 40 fsw. These were very spikey, 3-4 inch diameter with about one inch spikes. Color may not be black because I didn't shine a light on them. They were in every crack of the rocky reef.

wetrat

I think Black and Crowned urchins are one in the same. Maybe there is some confusion over common names. I think the species name is Centrostephanus coronatus

Here is photo courtesy of the Catalina Conservancy.
http://www.ccd.org/CatalinaSpecies/Crowned_Sea_Urchin.html

The black urchins are typically much bigger than the purple urchins and perhaps a bit bigger than the reds. The reds can look dark but in good lighting they are clearly reddish. Not sure if there are other species near the Coranados but there are only the three in the LA/OC area.

A.

 

[drbill]

Crowned, Coronado and black are common names for the same thing based on the names I have heard tossed about. You have the species name correct.

The description Wetrat provided of 1" spines on a 3-4" test sounds more like a red urchin though. Black urchins have much longer spines relative to test diameter, even in the very small juveniles I've filmed.