Undercurrent News: Urchinomics brings ‘pest’ urchins to retail at $70/kg
Sea urchin ranching concept Urchinomics has seen success at its semi-commercial trial in Japan, Brian Tsuyoshi Takeda -- founder and CEO of the initiative -- told Undercurrent News.
Urchinomics looks to catch urchins in areas where they are proliferating and harming kelp forests, before placing them in tanks and feeding them a more nutritious diet than they generally receive in the wild. This means they develop a far more consistent roe content, and can be sold at a premium to the wild-caught version -- itself already a luxury item, consumed mainly in Japan.