Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
Greetings purple urchin divers.
This thread is the place for people to read up about the tools, techniques, and tips to remove purple urchins. This is a sticky and can be referenced at any time.
Some things you will need:
1. Valid California fishing license.
2. One or more large green Trident game bags.
3. A 50# or bigger lift bag.
4. A small hand held gardening rake with a lanyard loop or bungee through the handle.
5. ** Optional - A 50’ 3/8” yellow poly line available at Home Depot. I attached a 2” stainless ring on each end via the looping tool they provide in the package.
This really helps to drag the full bags into the beach.
6. Stainless steel double ender bolt snaps for each of the above items.
7. *A compass that is easy to read and access such as one on your wrist.
8. And of course all of your regular scuba gear.
How do we do it?
The first thing a diver must do is properly set themselves up with all their equipment stowed away neatly and effectively. This reduces entanglement hazards and makes the dive more efficient and enjoyable.
Each bag should be packed so that you have it neatly rolled up to avoid it dragging and hanging up on everything below you, especially on entry.
To do this, pull the bottom of the bag fabric up through one of the handles and place the bulk of the netting inside the bag then clasp it shut. Then clip off the bag to your shoulder D-ring. You can store multiple bags this way.
You can clip off your rake on one of the bags.
Your lift bag should be rolled up with the least amount of residual air in it that you can manage.
You can clip off your lift bag where ever seems most convenient and easy to unclip when the need arises. I clip off my lift bag either to my butt D-ring that is attached to bottom back of my plate, or on a side D-ring on my waist band.
My rope is rolled up and has a bungee loop around it that I made and it is also clipped off to a side D-ring.
The working protocol is to first locate a section of purple urchins. Generally swimming out from the cove, the first ones I come upon is where I start clearing. Begin by getting a bag open and your rake in hand with the bungee around your wrist. I clip off all unused double ender bolt snaps to my left shoulder D-ring. I have lost bolt snaps before by leaving them clipped to the bag handles as I work.
Begin raking purple urchins into your bag and periodically you will need to shake the urchins down to the bottom of the bag. This is especially true at the beginning since the spines tend to hang up in the netting fabric. To get a nice fully packed bag, periodical shaking down is necessary. You can let go of the rake and let it dangle by it’s leash on your wrist as you shake down the bag with both hands.
When clearing an area, make sure you clear it completely of all purple urchins. Try not to cherry pick big ones or jump around. Effective clearing means cleaning an area completely. Sometimes we don’t leave an area larger than 2 square meters and can fill a bag. Other times we find ourselves on the periphery of a larger density, but it is important to get ones even if they are sparse in a location. Please only target purple urchins. There are also red and black urchins. They are much larger with longer spines but they are not the problem and they are also an important commercial resource so we’re leaving those alone.
When you finally pack a bag full you can unclip your lift bag and clip it to the full urchin bag. If you plan to fill multiple bags on the same dive then just put enough air into the lift bag to take some weight off the urchin bag, but not enough to send it up. Go and fill your other bags and make sure to turn around periodically to see where your first bag and lift bag are. If the visibility is low you might lose it!
After all the bags are full and clipped off to the lift bag, undo your yellow rope and clip it off to the lower D-ring on the lift bag. Then fill the lift bag and send it up. The 50# lift bag can lift three full bags to the top. Don’t hang onto the bags as they go up! Let it go to the top on it’s own. Make your way up to the top on your own and check your location. Please follow your proper ascent rate. Locate the beach and take your compass reading, then either you can surface swim in dragging/floating the bags in, or go back down and come in on the bottom dragging the bags by the rope. Swimming underwater towing the floating bags is actually way more efficient than surface swimming.
The alternate method if you know where you are in the cove, is to send up the bags and remain on the bottom. Then tow the bags in underwater. This is what I do. Just remember that if you are in the middle of Stillwater Cove the beach is 30 degrees on your compass. When you get to shore hand the rope to shore support and get your self out. Make sure your bags get weighed and recorded.
Keep an eye on your stuff!
Mark your bags somehow with tags or some other method that is unique. All the bags look the same and during the chaos of everything happening on the beach it’s easy to get gear mixed up.
The limit is 40 gallons of whole purple urchins per day with no possession limit.
That equates to about 150 lbs. of urchins. That is about three moderately full green Trident game bags. The green bags have been coming in weighing between 40 and 60 lbs. we’ve seen a couple champs that have managed to pack in over 80 lbs. in one green bag! The smaller yellow bags yield about 25 lbs. but are easier to handle underwater and don’t necessarily need a lift bag to use. These are ideal for freedivers.
We will provide all the cans/containers and we will haul away all the urchins. We want to make it as convenient and trouble free as possible for the divers so all you have to do is show up with your gear and get to work.
Some other hot pro tips:
Some of us have tied rope tails / holds onto the bottom corners on our bags so that there is something to hang onto as we dump the bags into the cans.
This is very convenient and easy to do. Just loop a length of 1/8” line through each corner and begin tying opposing square knots until the tail is about 3”- 4” long and presto, you have a handy hand hold.
Another pro tip is to set up your lift bag on your green bag on only one handle when the bag is about half full. Put only enough air into the lift bag to take some weight off the game bag. This makes it a lot easier to continue to fill the bag without urchins floating out and trying to drag a heavy bag around on the ground. Another efficient method is to rake a bunch of urchins into a big pile then fill the bag by hand (carefully! handle them gently and you won’t ruin your gloves) or using your rake. I do both.
For right now all our efforts will be concentrated on Stillwater Cove in Sonoma County.
We will continue our work at Stillwater until we see bull kelp re-establish.
Lately we have seen several other kelps and weeds / sea lettuces sprout and flourish so what we’re doing is working! None of that would be there if we hadn’t cleared purple urchins.
We need to keep up the pressure!
Thank you all for reading this and getting involved.
This is a work in progress and there will be updates and I hope to see people chime in with their thoughts and ideas.
Thank you!
This thread is the place for people to read up about the tools, techniques, and tips to remove purple urchins. This is a sticky and can be referenced at any time.
Some things you will need:
1. Valid California fishing license.
2. One or more large green Trident game bags.
3. A 50# or bigger lift bag.
4. A small hand held gardening rake with a lanyard loop or bungee through the handle.
5. ** Optional - A 50’ 3/8” yellow poly line available at Home Depot. I attached a 2” stainless ring on each end via the looping tool they provide in the package.
This really helps to drag the full bags into the beach.
6. Stainless steel double ender bolt snaps for each of the above items.
7. *A compass that is easy to read and access such as one on your wrist.
8. And of course all of your regular scuba gear.
How do we do it?
The first thing a diver must do is properly set themselves up with all their equipment stowed away neatly and effectively. This reduces entanglement hazards and makes the dive more efficient and enjoyable.
Each bag should be packed so that you have it neatly rolled up to avoid it dragging and hanging up on everything below you, especially on entry.
To do this, pull the bottom of the bag fabric up through one of the handles and place the bulk of the netting inside the bag then clasp it shut. Then clip off the bag to your shoulder D-ring. You can store multiple bags this way.
You can clip off your rake on one of the bags.
Your lift bag should be rolled up with the least amount of residual air in it that you can manage.
You can clip off your lift bag where ever seems most convenient and easy to unclip when the need arises. I clip off my lift bag either to my butt D-ring that is attached to bottom back of my plate, or on a side D-ring on my waist band.
My rope is rolled up and has a bungee loop around it that I made and it is also clipped off to a side D-ring.
The working protocol is to first locate a section of purple urchins. Generally swimming out from the cove, the first ones I come upon is where I start clearing. Begin by getting a bag open and your rake in hand with the bungee around your wrist. I clip off all unused double ender bolt snaps to my left shoulder D-ring. I have lost bolt snaps before by leaving them clipped to the bag handles as I work.
Begin raking purple urchins into your bag and periodically you will need to shake the urchins down to the bottom of the bag. This is especially true at the beginning since the spines tend to hang up in the netting fabric. To get a nice fully packed bag, periodical shaking down is necessary. You can let go of the rake and let it dangle by it’s leash on your wrist as you shake down the bag with both hands.
When clearing an area, make sure you clear it completely of all purple urchins. Try not to cherry pick big ones or jump around. Effective clearing means cleaning an area completely. Sometimes we don’t leave an area larger than 2 square meters and can fill a bag. Other times we find ourselves on the periphery of a larger density, but it is important to get ones even if they are sparse in a location. Please only target purple urchins. There are also red and black urchins. They are much larger with longer spines but they are not the problem and they are also an important commercial resource so we’re leaving those alone.
When you finally pack a bag full you can unclip your lift bag and clip it to the full urchin bag. If you plan to fill multiple bags on the same dive then just put enough air into the lift bag to take some weight off the urchin bag, but not enough to send it up. Go and fill your other bags and make sure to turn around periodically to see where your first bag and lift bag are. If the visibility is low you might lose it!
After all the bags are full and clipped off to the lift bag, undo your yellow rope and clip it off to the lower D-ring on the lift bag. Then fill the lift bag and send it up. The 50# lift bag can lift three full bags to the top. Don’t hang onto the bags as they go up! Let it go to the top on it’s own. Make your way up to the top on your own and check your location. Please follow your proper ascent rate. Locate the beach and take your compass reading, then either you can surface swim in dragging/floating the bags in, or go back down and come in on the bottom dragging the bags by the rope. Swimming underwater towing the floating bags is actually way more efficient than surface swimming.
The alternate method if you know where you are in the cove, is to send up the bags and remain on the bottom. Then tow the bags in underwater. This is what I do. Just remember that if you are in the middle of Stillwater Cove the beach is 30 degrees on your compass. When you get to shore hand the rope to shore support and get your self out. Make sure your bags get weighed and recorded.
Keep an eye on your stuff!
Mark your bags somehow with tags or some other method that is unique. All the bags look the same and during the chaos of everything happening on the beach it’s easy to get gear mixed up.
The limit is 40 gallons of whole purple urchins per day with no possession limit.
That equates to about 150 lbs. of urchins. That is about three moderately full green Trident game bags. The green bags have been coming in weighing between 40 and 60 lbs. we’ve seen a couple champs that have managed to pack in over 80 lbs. in one green bag! The smaller yellow bags yield about 25 lbs. but are easier to handle underwater and don’t necessarily need a lift bag to use. These are ideal for freedivers.
We will provide all the cans/containers and we will haul away all the urchins. We want to make it as convenient and trouble free as possible for the divers so all you have to do is show up with your gear and get to work.
Some other hot pro tips:
Some of us have tied rope tails / holds onto the bottom corners on our bags so that there is something to hang onto as we dump the bags into the cans.
This is very convenient and easy to do. Just loop a length of 1/8” line through each corner and begin tying opposing square knots until the tail is about 3”- 4” long and presto, you have a handy hand hold.
Another pro tip is to set up your lift bag on your green bag on only one handle when the bag is about half full. Put only enough air into the lift bag to take some weight off the game bag. This makes it a lot easier to continue to fill the bag without urchins floating out and trying to drag a heavy bag around on the ground. Another efficient method is to rake a bunch of urchins into a big pile then fill the bag by hand (carefully! handle them gently and you won’t ruin your gloves) or using your rake. I do both.
For right now all our efforts will be concentrated on Stillwater Cove in Sonoma County.
We will continue our work at Stillwater until we see bull kelp re-establish.
Lately we have seen several other kelps and weeds / sea lettuces sprout and flourish so what we’re doing is working! None of that would be there if we hadn’t cleared purple urchins.
We need to keep up the pressure!
Thank you all for reading this and getting involved.
This is a work in progress and there will be updates and I hope to see people chime in with their thoughts and ideas.
Thank you!
