Lucrative sea urchin market sparks debate

They look as appetizing as a cactus and taste like low tide, but not even that has been enough to keep New Brunswick's green sea urchins out of a prickly predicament.

Dredged up from the bottom of the Bay of Fundy and shipped off to sushi bars in Japan, the urchins command such high prices that their population may be slipping.

Just weeks away from the start of the annual season, there is debate between New Brunswick fishermen and scientists over the risk posed by catching too many of the little invertebrates, cousins of starfish that were once considered a nuisance by some of the same men who now pursue them.

Ten years ago, New Brunswickers hauled in 1,911 tonnes of sea urchins with a market value of a little more than $4 million. In 2006, those figures fell to 916 tonnes and $1.8 million.

The urchins have been in such short supply, in fact, that Grand Manan's commercial fleet decided not to fish for them in 2005-2006, and last year agreed to reduce their self-imposed catch limit by two-thirds to 176 tonnes from 540.

"We are hoping to maintain the same quota this year as last," Harold Cossaboom, a lobsterman from Grand Manan, said Tuesday as he was dropping his traps.

Fishing for sea urchins begins on Dec. 10.

"Scientists want a reduction in the quota, but we don't support that. We unanimously figure we have taken enough measures, and in our opinion, the fishery is coming back, or at least stabilizing.

"But we all have agreed to closely monitor our catch rates, and if looks like the population is in trouble, we'll say, 'We have a problem here' and shut it right down."

About the size of a tennis ball and as cuddly as a tiny porcupine, green sea urchins are prized in Japan, where discriminating diners consider their brightly coloured reproductive organs to be a delicacy. Although their privates are said to have a sweet, nutty taste, don't expect the urchin fad to catch on in New Brunswick anytime soon.

Gulls consume more in tidal pools than university students do on a bet.

David Robichaud, a scientist in St. Andrews, N.B., with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, said information on sea urchins is lacking, but it appears that certain populations are in trouble.

An East Coast fishery for them developed only in the past few decades, after the slow-growing invertebrates were nearly wiped out off Japan and the Pacific coast of North America. It takes sea urchins nearly 12 to 15 years to grow to two inches, which is the legal minimum size.

"It appears the population is down drastically worldwide compared to what it once was," said Robichaud, who for the last three years has helped prepare quota surveys for the area off Grand Manan, where lobstermen once reviled urchins because they clogged traps.

"There has been a gold-rush approach around the world."

Only 32 fishermen have licences to catch sea urchins in New Brunswick's two commercial zones off Grand Manan and roughly between Deer Island and Maces Bay.

But Robichaud said catch figures from recent years, especially from the waters off Grand Manan, indicate the population may be going down.

"The fishermen have voluntarily reduced their quotas in hope that the fishery will turn a corner and they'll see an increase," Robichaud said. "But preliminary data shows that an increase hasn't occurred."

Fikret Berkes, a marine scientist and Canada Research chair based at the University of Manitoba, recently cited the sea urchin population in the Gulf of Maine as one that was exploited to satisfy the sushi market before resource managers had an opportunity to step in.

The catch in New Brunswick is only a small percentage of that in Maine, but has to be carefully monitored so as not to upset the ecological balance.

As Berkes explained it, cod and haddock feed on the sea urchins, and sea urchins feed on kelp. Without a healthy population of cod, the sea urchins run amok and without them kelp beds grow wild.

But New Brunswick has an advantage over Maine in that it has better baseline information, even if it is scant. Not to mention a healthy skepticism when it comes to eating spiny invertebrates.