Aquafarmers serve up invasive species to help restore balance in hard-hit region: 'The demand ... is enormous'

Aquaculture innovators in Santa Barbara, California, have started farming invasive purple sea urchins to help restore balance to ocean ecosystems, and they're already a big hit in local seafood restaurants.

The Santa Barbara Independent newspaper reported that the shellfish species is wreaking havoc on coastal ecosystems across the state because of rising ocean temperatures and a lack of predators. With nothing to stop them, they're gobbling up all the kelp and throwing the ecosystem out of balance.

However, urchin divers and abalone farmers in Santa Barbara have realized that cultivating purple sea urchins on aquaculture farms could help turn the tides. Plus, it's a lucrative endeavor since sea urchins are highly coveted for their uni — their sex organs.

Each urchin produces five creamy orange sections of "meat" that food blogger Yummy Mummy Kitchen describes as a "thick mousse." It may sound a bit strange, to say the least, but it's a popular delicacy worldwide, including in California.

"The demand for uni is enormous," Doug Bush, the owner and manager of The Cultured Abalone, an onshore shellfish farm in Santa Barbara, told the newspaper. "We're enriching the reputation for California and Santa Barbara as a source for very, very high-value uni. We are able to add a new menu item to the classical California seafood card."

In 2019, urchin divers Harry Liquornik and Stephanie Mutz, owners of the commercial fishing company Sea Stephanie Fish, partnered with Bush to farm the "purples," as they call them. Once they're fattened in tanks for 10 weeks, they produce delicious purple uni that the team calls Purple Hotchi, which translates into "forest urchin," the farm's website explains.

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So far, the project is relatively small, serving several local restaurants and direct customers — who can purchase a dozen for $140 — as Bush told the newspaper. However, he plans to scale up production and hopes other farms will also show interest in cultivating purples.

While he acknowledged that invasive sea urchins are a symptom of larger climate imbalances and that you'd have to harvest tons of them to restore that balance, it's at least a step in the right direction.

After all, farming them helps manage the population while creating economic value and feeding people. If more companies get involved, that will enhance the impact and hopefully allow more adventurous eaters to try the sweet purples.

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"I've been a very outspoken advocate for this type of project," Bush said. "It's market-based. It's regional-food-system-based. It engages people with food and the environment. It's fun. It's weird. It's unusual. It's a really neat project."