Saving California from Purple Sea Urchins

Purple sea urchins (uni) are currently swarming on the west coast, from San Francisco all the way up to northern Washington. According to a recent AP article, millions of the spiky, squat spheroids have decimated kelp beds and left delicate coastal ecosystems denuded and in risk of collapse.

We don’t need much of an excuse to eat urchin roe, so we drove down to Humboldt County to forage what uni we could and help save the west coast.

We timed our visit to coincide with the new moon/spring tide, and used Google Maps to select Baker Beach as a likely hunting ground. Here’s what happened when we got there:

(click for larger images)

Baker Beach has easy access to rocky sections.

On the ocean side of some large rocks we found our old friends, gooseneck barnacles.

This odd lump is a chiton…

…which is apparently edible, but the tiny amount of meat on them is very tough.

“I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas.”

We didn’t invite little Prufrock to our party.

Out on the tide-exposed rocks we found our spiny prey.

Urchins like to jam themselves into crevices to elude predators.

We came well equipped, with grabbers and scrapers.

Aya chose her sweater to match. She thinks of things like that.

After much cleaning and prepping, we feasted.

Washed in white wine, the raw uni roe sits atop hot rice and salty nori.

And we couldn’t help but invite some goosenecks to the party. Always a special treat.

Next time we will take our snorkels and wet-suits and go out to deeper water to gather the big fat ones from the ocean floor.