Quote:
Originally Posted by Mski
The urchin divers are gone because the sea urchins have depleted the kelp so much that they are now starving. As a result, they contain little to no uni (urchin roe) and are no longer a marketable food source. Unfortunately they don’t just die of starvation but can linger for years eating any new kelp that grows and creating urchin barrens. There is some hope in a fairly new start up company called Urchinomics based in Norway. They collect the starving urchins, feed them in shore-based aquaculture farms to fatten them up and then sell the uni. It would be nice to see that take off here in SoCal someday.
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So you’re saying that these urchins aren’t reproductive but still linger and if we just remove them, or most of them, there’s a chance the kelp could grow back?