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A32 FEATURE
Monday 28 october 2019
Swarm of sea urchins wreaks destruction on U.S. West Coast

NEWPORT, Ore. (AP) — Tens which poured an esti-
of millions of voracious pur- mated $44 million into the
ple sea urchins that have coastal economy per year,
already chomped their and Oregon suspended
way through towering un- permits for its 300 abalone
derwater kelp forests in Cal- divers for three years. The
ifornia are spreading north commercial harvest of red
to Oregon, sending the del- sea urchins in California
icate marine ecosystem off and Oregon also has taken
the shore into such disarray a massive hit.
that other critical species "That's a huge economic
are starving to death. loss for our small coastal
A recent count found 350 communities," said Cynthia
million purple sea urchins Catton, a research associ-
on one Oregon reef alone ate with the University of
— more than a 10,000% in- California, Davis Bodega
crease since 2014. And in Marine Lab. "In California,
Northern California, 90% of there were 30,000 to 40,000
the giant bull kelp forests participants in (the aba-
have been devoured by lone) fishery every year for
the urchins, perhaps never decades, and for the first
to return. time ever that fishery had
Vast "urchin barrens" — In this 2018 photo, provided by Scott Groth, a destroyed kelp forest filled with an explosion of to close."
stretches of denuded sea- purple sea urchins is seen off the Oregon coast near Port Orford, Ore. And while the purple ur-
floor dotted with nothing Associated Press chins have eaten them-
but hundreds of the spiny selves into starvation as
orbs — have spread to no predators, those gam- plosion, but they suspect it California's last remaining well, unlike other kelp-
coastal Oregon, where etes grew up and are now plays a role in the cascade kelp forests. dependent creatures, the
kelp forests were once so eating everything in sight. of events that allowed the The devastation is also eco- species can go into a dor-
thick it was impossible to "You can imagine all of purple urchins to boom. nomic: Until now, red aba- mant state, stop reproduc-
navigate some areas by these small urchins grow- And kelp, already under lone and red sea urchins, ing and live for years with
boat. ing up, each one of them siege from warming waters, a larger and meatier spe- no food. That means the
The underwater annihila- looking for food, desper- is not as resilient as it once cies of urchin, supported a only way to restore the kelp
tion is killing off important ate for food. They're liter- was, said Norah Eddy, an thriving commercial fishery is to remove or destroy the
fisheries for red abalone ally starving out there," said associate director at the in both states. But 96% of purple urchins. Scientists
and red sea urchins and Steven Rumrill, lead shellfish Nature Conservancy Cali- red abalone have disap- estimate that in Oregon
creating such havoc that expert at Oregon's wildlife fornia's oceans program. peared from California's alone, it would take 15 to 20
scientists in California are agency. "I've seen some "We're going to see climate northern coast as the num- years to remove all 100 mil-
partnering with a private big-scale fluctuations in change as a big driver of ber of purple sea urchins lion pounds (45 million kilo-
business to collect the the populations of sea stars changes in kelp forest as increased six fold, accord- grams) of purple urchins re-
over-abundant purple ur- and urchins, but never on we move forward, and we ing to a study released this cently surveyed on just one
chins and "ranch" them in this magnitude." are already seeing that," week by the University of large reef. While urchins are
a controlled environment Scientists are not yet sure if said Eddy, who is leading California, Davis. in starvation mode, the ed-
for ultimate sale to a global climate change is respon- an effort to use drones to Last year, California closed ible part — known as roe —
seafood market. sible for the sea urchin ex- map and monitor Northern its red abalone fishery, shrivels, making them com-
"We're in uncharted terri- mercially worthless.
tory," said Scott Groth, a Against this backdrop, con-
shellfish scientist with the servationists, commercial
Oregon Department of Fish urchin harvesters, scientists
and Wildlife. "You can't just and private interests are
go out and smash them. coming together with an
There's too many. I don't unusual plan: Pay under-
know what we can do." employed red sea urchin
The explosion of purple sea divers to collect the shriv-
urchins is the latest symp- eled, but living, purple sea
tom of a Pacific Northwest urchins and transfer them
marine ecosystem that's to carefully tended urchin
out of whack. "ranches" to be fattened
Kelp has been struggling up for sale to seafood mar-
because of warmer-than- kets around the world.
usual waters in the Pacific One company, Urchinom-
Ocean. And, in 2013, a ics, is already working on
mysterious disease began urchin ranching projects in
wiping out tens of millions Japan, Canada and Cali-
of starfish, including a spe- fornia and sees a future
cies called the sunflower where the overwhelming
sea star that is the only real demand for wild urchin
predator of the ultra-hardy roe is replaced by a taste
purple urchin. Around the In this May 20, 2019 photo, roe, or uni, is seen inside a purple urchin that was harvested off the for human-raised purple
same time, the purple ur- Mendocino County Coast and fed for several weeks at the Bodega Marine Lab in Bodega Bay, urchins collected from the
chins had two excellent Calif. seafloor, allowing kelp for-
breeding years — and with Associated Press ests to rebound.q