The impact of kelp restoration benefit many globally.
Urchinomics’ innovative system helped to define the restorative uni market category and is set to benefit many stakeholders globally. Moreover, the pioneering work involving the blue carbon and biodiversity credits will serve to accelerate marine habitat restoration allowing us to stay true to our mission of restoring the world’s kelp forests.
Multiple stakeholders benefit from the Urchinomics model but the greatest impact will be on the on the environment by creating habitat for abundant marine life by sequestering carbon.
Through innovation and profit, Urchinomics will help to reverse the decline of our delicate coastal marine ecosystem.
Natural Capital
At its core Urchinomics, is a response focused on restoring the balance in our ecosystems Natural Capital. Humanity is part of a complex living and interconnected system consisting of the planets Natural Capital. Historically, our planets Natural Capital has been kept in relative balance, but due to climate change and human activity it is now increasingly out of balance.
The Natural capital is the stock of resources which generate ecosystem services. The crucial link between natural capital and ecosystem services is that when some classes of ecosystem services are appropriated by humanity at an unsustainable rate, the stocks of natural capital which provide them may be depleted.
Urchinomics is a response to the catastrophic impact of the sea urchin explosion and subsequent marine ecosystem habitat destruction caused by overfishing, pollution, and global warming.
Natural Capital: Our Goals
Our specific actionable goal is to restore kelp forests. We do this by being the pioneering and category defining aquaculture venture that aims to turn ecologically destructive sea urchins into premium seafood products that can be consistently supplied year-round. The Urchinomics business model helps restore kelp forests, which in turn supports greater marine biomass, biodiversity, and capacity to sequester CO2, all while creating meaningful, full-time employment in rural, coastal communities around the world.
We see ourselves as part of the greater global initiative that saves and restores our ecosystems and Natural Capital.
Blue Carbon
Urchinomics’ innovative system restores kelp forests and contributes to the binding and sequestering of carbon in four distinct methods.
Urchinomics secured the world´s first voluntary blue carbon credit in December 2022, through our urchin ranching and kelp restoration efforts in Nagato, Japan. The science was conducted by independent scientist Dr. Teruhisa Komatsu, formerly of University of Tokyo, and submitted to the expert panel at Japan Blue Economy. Based on the submitted data from western Japan, we estimate the following:
In order to restore 1ha of kelp forest, we need to remove approximately 1411kg of overgrazing sea urchins
1 ha of kelp forest generates approximately 1,5t of verifiable blue carbon credits
According to Japan Blue Economy, the average price of blue carbon credits in 2021 was JPY 72,800/t, and 2022 (which includes Urchinomics´ blue carbon credits from kelp restoration) was JPY 78,063/t.
However, this is the tip of the iceberg. The benefits are probably much greater. Based on current research and methodology, only deep-sea sequestration of kelp, is currently recognized by Japan Blue Economy in the blue carbon credit.
This suggests that amount of carbon sequestered by our activities are likely conservative estimates and does not fully account for all of the carbon sequestration that happens when we ranch urchins and restore kelp forests.
Blue Carbon: Our Goals
While restoring kelp forests, our goal is to inform other governments to learn about and study the precedent set by Japan, and accelerate the adoption of voluntary, as well as nationally certified blue carbon credits, so that more funding can be channeled to kelp restoration.
Ecosystem Services
Together with Blue Carbon credits, we also believe Ecosystem Services, or the value society enjoys by having natural ecosystems, is arguably the most important factor we should be considering when thinking about kelp forest protection and restoration. Ecosystem services are the flows of benefits which people gain from natural ecosystems, and natural capital is the stock of natural ecosystems from which these benefits flow.
According to Dr. Aaron Eger of the Kelp Forest Alliance, the estimated ecosystem services value of kelp forests was on average USD 156,700/ha/year.
For perspective, the updated ecosystem services value of tropical and boreal forests is USD$5,382 and USD$3,137/ha/year respectively. This suggests the average kelp forests provide ecosystem services values that are 29x tropical forests and 50x boreal forests. In places like Japan, where the ecosystem services value is estimated at USD 276,000/ha/year, Japanese kelp forests provide ecosystem services that are 51x greater than tropical forests, and 88x greater than boreal forests. And this estimate is assumed to be conservative, as only fisheries, nutrient removal, and carbon sequestration were included in the estimates of ecosystem services value.
…kelp forests provide ecosystem services that are 51x greater than tropical forests, and 88x greater than boreal forests.
Further more, Norwegian scientists from NIVA estimate the kelp forest loss caused by overgrazing sea urchins in northern Norway to be around 5,000 sqkm. And if Norwegian kelp forests have a conservative ecosystem services value of UD 221,000/ha/year, that means Norway suffers an ecosystem services loss of over USD 110,000,000,000 annually.
According to the Seafood Council of Norway, the entire export value of wild and farmed seafood from Norway in 2022 was 151,4 billion NOK, or USD 14,000,000,000. Ironically, the Institute of Marine Research, a state-funded research institute, points to overfishing of predatory species as the primary cause of sea urchin overpopulation and kelp loss in the country.
Ecosystem Services: Our Goals
While restoring kelp forests, our goal is to spread awareness about the economic, ecologic, and social value of kelp forests. We aim to contribute to the science in order to better understand the value of ecosystem services, and demonstrate how for-profit initiatives like Urchinomics, if done correctly, can restore these values. To do this while generating profits and creating meaningful jobs in coastal, rural communities.
Restorative Economy
Urchinomics’ commitment to a restorative economy is rooted in the restoration of kelp forests. Restored kelp forests improve fish biomass and biodiversity, making the ecosystem more resilient to climate change, while increasing the natural capital, namely fish, for fishers to catch, eat and sell.
The kelp also binds and sequesters carbon, contributing to the global effort to decarbonize via nature-based solutions. But our commitment does not end where the oceans meet the shoreline.
We believe that we can also contribute to the restoration of terrestrial ecosystems. For at least 200 years, urchin shells have been used in Japan as a bio stimulant for grasslands and a natural way to reduce the acidity of soils. Discarded urchin shells would be left in a field for the rain to wash away the salt. During the spring, when weeds can be seen to grow amongst the urchin shells, farmers used that as an indicator that the salt was gone and the shells could be used. The shells were then crushed and deposited in the soil to improve grass yields.
Restorative Economy: Our Goals
Beyond restoring kelp forests, our goal is to use our shells and other by-products from our aquaculture operations to produce organic, carbon negative, agricultural bio stimulants that reduce the need for fossil fuel based synthetic fertilizers.
Circular Economy
While our ecological impact is restorative, we believe we can also contribute to the profitability and circularity of wild and farmed kelp production. According to research conducted in Shakotan, Hokkaido, urchin shells have the potential to be a nutrient boosting fertilizer for wild and farmed kelp. According to a publication published by Shakotan municipality in 2020, urchin shells blended into the seed rope of farmed kelp could raise productivity by over 380%. The “slow release” of the urchin shell nutrients allows juvenile kelp to absorb the nutrients and outgrow the control.
Circular Economy: Our Goals
In collaboration with kelp farming and kelp restoration initiatives, we would like to contribute to this body of knowledge, and find more impactful and profitable ways to utilize our urchin shells.
Indigenous Communities
The knowledge possessed by indigenous communities, particularly in terms of their understanding of their local ecosystems and the shifting baselines is an important foundation for us. Scientific data from the ocean, while incredibly helpful, often only goes back a few decades at best. This means that the scientific data we are using to establish baselines is effectively ignoring over 120+ years of industrial overfishing and its effects. Indigenous knowledge which goes back thousands of years helps fill this information gap, allowing us to better understand what areas have the potential to return as kelp forests, and where our efforts may not be fruitful.
Indigenous Communities: Our Goals
We will continue to prioritize working with indigenous communities, and leveraging their extensive knowledge to find the optimal sites to generate kelp restoration.
Inclusivity
Urchinomics’ strengths comes from our diversity, and our ability to draw from the unique experiences from our global team. Our team is led by Brian Tsuyoshi Takeda, a Japanese-Canadian operating from Norway. The team is culturally, ethnically, linguistically and geographically diverse, bringing unique insights that can only be achieved from deep and meaningful experiences from around the world. As well as this, Urchinomics actively recruits mission-aligned female leaders. Our Japanese, Norwegian and Canadian sites have female leaders running our operations.