Forbes: Urchin Ranching In California Becomes A Reality In 2020
Scuba divers armed with mesh bags and thick neoprene gloves descend onto a rocky reef littered with spiny purple orbs. They carefully pluck each creature from the substrate, so as not to damage their brittle bodies. These urchins must be kept alive. The next stop for the urchins is a land-based aquaculture system located in Bodega Bay, California. Since 2013, Urchinomics, a restorative aquaculture company, has been testing and refining their process to collect and ranch these urchins to address the increasingly urgent environmental problem of urchin barrens in one of the locations hit hardest by this alarming ecosystem shift.