Palos Verdes urchin culling
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Is smashing blue sea urchins the right or wrong thing to do? The video shows them smashing the urchins with a hammer, but I've also heard smashing them causes them to just reproduce more rapidly. Anyone know the definitive answer?
I have used urchins under laboratory conditions, in bioassay labs, for years; and the standard protocols instruct that, should administering a 0.55 M KCl / H20 solution with a hypodermic, fail to elicit gametes, so-called "injury of a conspecific" always did the trick -- aka, a hammer.
That should tell you something . . .
OP
The height of the S. purpuratus breeding season is "usually" the first three months of the year; though ripe animals can be found from September through May -- even in July, in some colder waters.
The only time we didn't use them for testing, was very late Summer, when we switched to sand dollars -- basically a flattened and reduced urchin . . .
LACounty4806
Contributor
In this specific case, NMFS scientists made the call that due to the overpopulation of urchins off the peninsula, that smashing was the only practical method of removal as opposed to complete removal and compaction.
Why not harvest them for their gonads (AKA Uni)?
The solution to California’s rampant sea urchin problem is to eat them. I gave it a try
How to open and prepare LIVE Sea Urchin Uni
They even make a special purpose tool for opening:
Fresh
The solution to California’s rampant sea urchin problem is to eat them. I gave it a try
How to open and prepare LIVE Sea Urchin Uni
They even make a special purpose tool for opening:
Fresh
OP
Most of the urchin barrens are small purple urchins. They are considered too small for the Asian market, and virtually worthless.
LACounty4806
Contributor
There are innovations being made in developing a market for purple urchins as well as methodologies being tested to create a more market-friendly product through aquaculture. A March 22nd article in the LA Times outlines one such project that utilizes and fattens "zombie" urchins collected from PV barrens. Interesting stuff. There are only so many divers with hammers but there are a boatload of hungry people that might be another tool to solve this problem.
I have a few of those speciific toolWhy not harvest them for their gonads (AKA uni)?
The solution to California’s rampant sea urchin problem is to eat them. I gave it a try
How to open and prepare LIVE Sea Urchin Uni
They even make a special purpose tool for opening:
View attachment 717361
Fresh
In Japan, they process everything -- purples, reds, etc; we supplied a great number of all of them, in years past . . .
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