No pics yet until I text a couple people who were taking pics.
706 lbs today!
Only 6 divers, a lot of people apparently didn’t get the memo, unfortunately. We need to be better about that.
But here is the highlight of the day.
So, one of the divers (a new guy) invited another guy he knows to show up and get some free urchins. Apparently the guy is really into uni and eats the stuff like candy.
So we’re all diving away filling bags and coming in getting weighed, etc. and I see this huge Samoan/Hawaiian dude, a very powerful looking guy salivating over the urchins. Turns out he was the friend of the diver. He introduced himself as “Junior”.
He asked if he could take some and I replied he could ‘take them all’ kind of half joking. Well he did take them all. He explained that he had a big church function happening and hundreds of people were waiting for these urchins to have an uni feast. He further explained that they consider it a delicacy and this meant more to him than we could imagine. We offered to help him carry these very heavy full trash Brute trash cans full of urchins weighing hundreds of lbs. across the beach and to the parking area a few hundred feet past the picnic tables, but he casually said “No, I got it”. We watched him lift FULL 35 GALLON TRASH CANS OF URCHINS up onto his shoulder and hike each one like that all the way from the waters edge to the parking lot!!! This guy needs to play for the NFL!! So I got his business card and will drop off urchins to him from now on. If I know someone is eating them then they get priority.
While he was on the beach talking, he cleaned one and when he was done it looked like a flower. He pulled out the mouth and trimmed away the shell exposing the uni along the insides of the shell, it was beautiful!
I’m actually starting to really like the stuff. I did some reading and found out it’s chock full of vitamin C, Vitamin A, B vitamins, a lot of protein, and a whole battery of cancer fighting compounds, anti oxidants, etc. It’s a real superfood, or powerfood (pick your term).
