Tag Archives: sea urchins
So that’s how you deal with lobsters
Christie Wilcox describes a terrible experiment. Investigators were mystified >click here< by an area around a Pacific island that was empty of lobsters, so they dumped a bunch of lobsters there to see what happened. And then… “Visibility was great that day, and virtually the entire sea bottom started to move,” he said. That movement was countless whelks. They started to climb onto the newcomers, sticking to their legs. “I didn’t know then, but they’d started to suck them alive, basically. It was like a horror movie,” Barkai said. “It actually was a bit frightening to watch.” The lobsters simply didn’t know how to respond. They were outnumbered and overwhelmed. “To my horror, in about 30, 40 minutes, all the lobsters were killed.” Barkai managed to bring two whelk-coated lobsters back to the surface to show the crew—which is when the first photo in this piece was shot.>click to read<19:59
The Japanese like to see sea urchins with big gonads, but not too big.
Newfoundland and Labrador has made a dollar on urchins, but could potentially make more in future. “It needs to have the right shape, the right colour, the right texture and most importantly the right taste,” said Philip James, a scientist with the Norwegian institute of food, fisheries and aquaculture research (Nofima), describing the seafood market demand, at the recent World Seafood Congress in Reykjavik, Iceland. About 90 per cent of the globally produced urchin gonad — or roe, as is more commonly known — is sent to the Japanese market. It can be hard at times for the world’s producers to source good roe, with urchins plucked from the ocean not always having consistent quantity and quality. click here to read the story 11:18
The risky quest for sea urchins
His face and lips went numb in seconds, but that was the least of Wayne Hardy’s worries as he disappeared beneath the ocean’s surface, diving to a bed of sea urchins 14 metres below. “There are a lot of things that can go wrong,” Hardy said a few days after he and three other divers collectively hauled in roughly 3,000 pounds of sea urchins from the ocean floor off the coast of Main-a-Dieu. “If things go wrong, there’s not a lot of room for error. There are a lot of bad things that can happen very quickly. Read the article here 13:18
Fit to eat, or what? Sea urchins worth scarfing, say fans
They’re the snack of choice for thousands of seagulls, and a delicacy on dinner plates in Japan, and now some foodies in Newfoundland and Labrador say sea urchins are a local treat worth trying. Just ask Roger Andrews, whose sea urchin Bavarian dish won first place at the St. John’s Gold Medal Plates 2015 in November. Andrews, who is normally in the kitchen at Relish Gourmet Burgers on Waldegrave Street, looked for something more exotic when donning his competition chef’s hat. Sea urchins fit the bill. Read the article here 08:04
Card plan for Maine’s valuable urchins draws mixed response
Joe Leask, a diver on the Maine coast who is also the chairman of the Maine Sea Urchin Zone Council advisory board, said he’s not sure the swipe card system is necessary. Urchin fishermen already keep log books and are subject to a highly regulated fishing season as it is, Leask said.”What is the goal of the swipe card? If it’s accountability, the system’s already in place,” Leask said. “I’m not sure it’s a tool that’s needed right now.” Read the rest here 12:48
Business for sea urchins is brisk in Edmunds
EDMUNDS, Maine — Business was brisk for fishermen plying Denny’s Bay at the start of the late dragging season for sea urchins on Monday. A couple of companies bought sea urchins from fishermen as they landed their catch at the boat ramp at Cobscook Bay State Park. Prices were off compared to the same time about a year ago, but most fishermen were not arguing and were happy to exchange their catch for cash. more@BDN 07:32
Urchin depletion leads to crab abundance, study says
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A boom that saw Maine fishermen harvest millions of pounds of sea urchins for the lucrative Japanese market depleted the spiny sea creatures, turning the ecosystem upside-down and creating an ideal habitat for an urchin predator that has flourished, according to a new scientific study. continue reading
