Purple urchins, the final word.

[Eric Sedletzky]

Here’s something that might interest Northern California divers and those specifically involved in the purple urchin issue.

I emailed the main guy in charge of the purple urchin issue at CDFW.
Here’s the email I got back.
It’s pretty cut and dry. Now I know the rules for sure, no more heresay. I should have just done this from the start.

“ Hi Eric,

Thanks for your interest and questions. Below I've provided some information that might be useful.

- In December 2020, the California Fish and Game Commission adopted a regulatory amendment to the sport harvest regulations for sea urchin ( https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=184900&inline ).

- As of April 1, 2021 this amendment allows divers with a valid California sport fishing license to take unlimited purple sea urchin and red sea urchin, including via underwater culling (i.e. crushing urchins underwater using hand tools) at Tanker Reef in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. See Section 29.06 of the 2021-2022 California Recreational Ocean Fishing Regulations (California Recreational Ocean Fishing Regulations).

- The amendment also allows divers with a valid California sport fishing license to take unlimited purple sea urchin, including via underwater culling, at Caspar Cove in Mendocino County. See Section 29.06 of the 2021-2022 California Recreational Ocean Fishing Regulations. ( California Recreational Ocean Fishing Regulations ).

- Urchin culling is legal at these two locations ONLY. Urchin culling is not legal anywhere else in California

- Divers who wish to cull purple and/or red sea urchins must obtain a valid California sport fishing license, available at Sport Fishing Licenses and Report Cards

- Divers who wish to harvest purple and/or red sea urchin outside of Tanker Reef or Caspar Cove should be aware that the daily bag limit is 35 individuals of each species per day, except for Humboldt, Mendocino, and Sonoma Counties, where the daily bag limit for purple sea urchin is 40 gallons (of whole urchins) per day. There is no possession limit for sea urchin. See Section 29.06 of the 2021-2022 California Recreational Ocean Fishing Regulations (California Recreational Ocean Fishing Regulations)

- A valid California sport fishing license is required and divers must observe marine protected area (MPA) regulations, which are available at California's Marine Protected Area (MPA) Network

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Regards,
James

________________
James Ray
CDFW | Marine Region
Office: (707) 441 5755

 

[Brett Hatch]

Thanks Eric, it's nice to have this all in one place. Seems pretty crystal clear what exactly is legal and illegal here, and there ain't much room for interpretation.

I guess it is still an open question whether removing or culling will be more effective. Or whether one or both of those interventions will cause more harm than good. Hopefully the study at Tanker's Reef will be able to answer some of these outstanding questions.

I signed up for the G2KR class next weekend, and bought one of the little slag hammers with the spiral wire handle from Aquarius dive shop. I see what you mean about the hammer being a little small, and can see a good-size urchin maybe poking a hole through my dryglove. I might try bringing a ball peen hammer or a drywall hammer along as well, to compare. On the other hand, I've heard a concern about damaging surface of the seafloor, since that area consists of soft-ish shale, so there may be such a thing as a too-big hammer.

Have you tried bringing a pair of yard work gloves along, and wearing them on top of your dive gloves? Seems like a thick chunk of leather might help, but would also be pretty clumsy.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Thanks Eric, it's nice to have this all in one place. Seems pretty crystal clear what exactly is legal and illegal here, and there ain't much room for interpretation.

I guess it is still an open question whether removing or culling will be more effective. Or whether one or both of those interventions will cause more harm than good. Hopefully the study at Tanker's Reef will be able to answer some of these outstanding questions.

I signed up for the G2KR class next weekend, and bought one of the little slag hammers with the spiral wire handle from Aquarius dive shop. I see what you mean about the hammer being a little small, and can see a good-size urchin maybe poking a hole through my dryglove. I might try bringing a ball peen hammer or a drywall hammer along as well, to compare. On the other hand, I've heard a concern about damaging surface of the seafloor, since that area consists of soft-ish shale, so there may be such a thing as a too-big hammer.

Have you tried bringing a pair of yard work gloves along, and wearing them on top of your dive gloves? Seems like a thick chunk of leather might help, but would also be pretty clumsy.

Hi Brett,
The ball peen worked really well because I didn’t need to use a lot of force. The hammer has enough weight that it does a lot of the work for you. If you really swing it I could see it maybe breaking up some rock but I just gave it enough force to crunch the urchin shell and that was it. I got urchin spines in my knuckles not from missing my target but from the others below it that slipped out of sight. Just be careful with that small slag hammer. I suppose one could pull a pair of leather gloves over some thin 3 mil gloves. In your case using dry gloves you would for sure want to protect those. I don’t know much about drysuits and how drygloves go on, but you might want to consider regular wrist seals and just use some 5 mil Kevlar wet gloves for this operation.
The debate about what is better, removing or culling, is kind of a moot point now where I’m choosing to work. It will be removal for me until further notice.

 

[wnissen]

Here’s something that might interest Northern California divers and those specifically involved in the purple urchin issue.

I emailed the main guy in charge of the purple urchin issue at CDFW.
Here’s the email I got back.
It’s pretty cut and dry. Now I know the rules for sure, no more heresay. I should have just done this from the start.

“ Hi Eric,

Thanks for your interest and questions. Below I've provided some information that might be useful.

- In December 2020, the California Fish and Game Commission adopted a regulatory amendment to the sport harvest regulations for sea urchin ( https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=184900&inline ).

- As of April 1, 2021 this amendment allows divers with a valid California sport fishing license to take unlimited purple sea urchin and red sea urchin, including via underwater culling (i.e. crushing urchins underwater using hand tools) at Tanker Reef in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. See Section 29.06 of the 2021-2022 California Recreational Ocean Fishing Regulations (California Recreational Ocean Fishing Regulations).

- The amendment also allows divers with a valid California sport fishing license to take unlimited purple sea urchin, including via underwater culling, at Caspar Cove in Mendocino County. See Section 29.06 of the 2021-2022 California Recreational Ocean Fishing Regulations. ( California Recreational Ocean Fishing Regulations ).

- Urchin culling is legal at these two locations ONLY. Urchin culling is not legal anywhere else in California

- Divers who wish to cull purple and/or red sea urchins must obtain a valid California sport fishing license, available at Sport Fishing Licenses and Report Cards

- Divers who wish to harvest purple and/or red sea urchin outside of Tanker Reef or Caspar Cove should be aware that the daily bag limit is 35 individuals of each species per day, except for Humboldt, Mendocino, and Sonoma Counties, where the daily bag limit for purple sea urchin is 40 gallons (of whole urchins) per day. There is no possession limit for sea urchin. See Section 29.06 of the 2021-2022 California Recreational Ocean Fishing Regulations (California Recreational Ocean Fishing Regulations)

- A valid California sport fishing license is required and divers must observe marine protected area (MPA) regulations, which are available at California's Marine Protected Area (MPA) Network

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Regards,
James

________________
James Ray
CDFW | Marine Region
Office: (707) 441 5755

Hi Eric,

I really appreciate you reaching out to CDFW. That's a masterful response you received, too. I will be curious to see if any of the urchins have significant roe, because uni is my favorite sushi and I would love to cull two urchins with one hammer, so to speak. Thanks again.

 

[Bob DBF]

Hi Eric,

I really appreciate you reaching out to CDFW. That's a masterful response you received, too. I will be curious to see if any of the urchins have significant roe, because uni is my favorite sushi and I would love to cull two urchins with one hammer, so to speak. Thanks again.

I always took red urchins about 6" or so across the body for sushi, never bothered with the purple due to the size. The conditions determine the quality, but I haven't collected since the ocean conditions changed so I don't know if that has been affected.

 

[MichaelMc]

Thanks for getting all that. Most of it, particularly w.r.t Tankers reef, is what I passed on from going through the G2KR materials.

(Ah, by 'no more heresay' you mean hearsay, not heresy.)

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I always took red urchins about 6" or so across the body for sushi, never bothered with the purple due to the size. The conditions determine the quality, but I haven't collected since the ocean conditions changed so I don't know if that has been affected.

Not much in the reds right now, I’ve been checking.
It’s weird, on the left side of Stillwater Cove about 1 out every 8 purples have some mediocre yellow roe and it’s sweet not bitter.
On the Right side on the inside of the first wash rock which I nicknamed “The Bowl” the purples have nothing in them, zero roe.
The size of the urchin doesn’t seem to matter with which ones have roe.
I just purchased my 40 gallon Brute trash can and plan to fill it this weekend. I’m curious to see how big of an area 40 gallons will clear.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Thanks for getting all that. Most of it, particularly w.r.t Tankers reef, is what I passed on from going through the G2KR materials.

(Ah, by 'no more heresay' you mean hearsay, not heresy.)

here say, hear say, you get the point. English wasn’t my strong point.

 

[Bob DBF]

It’s weird, on the left side of Stillwater Cove about 1 out every 8 purples have some mediocre yellow roe and it’s sweet not bitter.

If you think about it, the predominant ocean flow is into the left side, and any nutrients would be forced into that side, for whoever is living there.

I never ran into any purple urchins with much for gonads, it isn't actually roe, but they were in an urchin barrens and low flow, now that I think about it.

Is the Bowl before or after the steel wheel? I found an old 32 auto that was barnacled up over in that area there years ago, I'll have to post a pic one day.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I’ll do my best to try and figure out how to post a satellite image with some circling on it. But the “Bowl” is right off the beach and just before the first wash rock which is kind of in the middle of the cove but a little to the right. It’s only maybe 8’ or 10’ deep and it’s where the purple urchins start on that side. I used to see harbor seals laying on that rock early in the morning when I’d pass by doing my surface swims out. They would just lay there and look at me go by. They’re gone now because there’s no fish. No kelp, no fish.

Edit: I’ve haven’t seen the steel wheel but I have been finding quite a lot of very crusty old ab diving gear from the past.