Why Sea Urchins Are So Expensive | So Expensive

[@IT-ec9us]

In Japan, research is being conducted to grow sea urchins with vegetables that can be thrown away. By giving vegetables, the number of eating parts has increased and the taste has improved.

[@tengkualiff]

Wow thats pretty cool. Love your country btw!

[@h.l4650]

Cool.

[@nicolodelucia8743]

circular economy is so interesting

[@jonathanng138]

Guess the businesses will die then

[@BossOfAllTrades]

@@tengkualiff don't get to excited about it if China manages to ruin Taiwan beginning stages into democratic Republic they will be just as bad as China

[@-12Sided]

The first ever person to have tried these must’ve been REALLY brave. “Let’s break open this dark spiky ball and eat it’s insides without cooking it.”

[@snippets981]

😂👏👏👏😂

[@andrewsinclair7159]

Fortune favors the bold in this case because it turns out the yellow parts of the spiky ball are goddamn delicious.

[@guardronerguy7122]

I'd say you have to be desperate and starving to eat it in order to find if it's edible, but hey it works out for the first person to try sea urchins

[@drawgam2946]

@@andrewsinclair7159 Does it compare to anything else?

[@andrewsinclair7159]

@@drawgam2946 It tastes like the ocean, but in a good way.

[@chuanhonglau3394]

The purple sea urchin does not taste as good as the red one but ultimately they're still edible and are devastating the kelp forests. A few KZbinrs who forage sustainably like Outdoor Chef Life advocate harvesting them instead of the red ones

[@gfuentes8449]

Economics should take care of that once the red ones are sufficiently difficult to find

[@Ranger-sl3qq]

I love outdoor chef!

[@MinutePlant]

Or just smash purple urchins open every time you're diving as long as they're within hand's reach

[@thesilentone4024]

Bolth are starting to decline do to lack of food to eat. Also the fact there not getting the purple ones and selling them confuses me. I love the blue ones looks very cool

[@thesilentone4024]

@Blahblah but the purple ones are eating the food till its all gone. Its almost like that raindeer island that had only raindeer on it tell it didn't because they eat all the food and starved to death. Kelp in those places were thick and kelp can grow 2 to 4 feet a day did you not see how shorte it was. Did you miss the huge living purple mat even if it takes more effort theres more of them then the red by lots.

[@gezak9733]

"In some cases, an urchin can be totally empty inside" Relatable

[@DeeDeex007o]

🤣🤣

[@jerxi6538]

Here in the Philippines, sea urchins (particularly the Collector urchin), is a delicacy. We usually buy and eat it raw, fresh from fishermen themselves when we go out island hopping. That's the only way we can eat them- going to the sea. They don't get processed or delivered to markets. As far as I can remember, each urchin costs about 50 pesos or 1 US dollar. Interesting how different countries eat urchin!

[@gaudenciomanaloto6443]

>They don't get processed or delivered to markets uhh, they do, and they're expensive. EDIT: To all the youtube intellectual lightweights commenting about how wrong I am, I am from the Philippines too, and again, we do process sea urchin the same way as shown in the video, down to the styrofoam packaging, though not in the same scale of tons of urchin per day. Why would I talk about other parts of the world when the original comment talks about the Philippines lmao. Also, just to be clear, I'm not saying and have never said that people are not eating them fresh from the sea, it's just not possible for city folks like me, so we get them processed and packaged, I don't need to go island hopping just to satisfy my craving for uni. It's always nice to see r/confidentlyincorrect content out here in the wild. I've been called so many names that it's quite amusing since evidently many of you weren't taught about context clues in grade school. I wasn't expecting quality discourse since this is the youtube comments but I never expected this level of smugness from people who couldn't even read plain english properly lmao

[@jerxi6538]

We Filipinos eat them fresh from the sea. If the urchins were processed and delivered, it would be business so small it is barely observed, hence my comment. We don't have urchins in our fancy restaurants (except for a select few) and supermarkets here. :)

[@jerxi6538]

@@gaudenciomanaloto6443 , if you have observed urchins consumed the same way as shown in the video happening in the Philippines, please, correct me with some proof.

[@jerxi6538]

I was talking about urchin consumption in the Philippines, I did not use that statement to describe urchin consumption around other parts of the world nor as shown in the video.

[@PoliticalMatter]

Disaster.

[@Guoenyi]

As someone who dives for their own urchin, I deeply know the high price is due to the tedious cleaning to get the gonads out in good condition.

[@TrHippyful]

Does it affect taste?

[@Guoenyi]

@@TrHippyful nah, but you do not want to turn it into small bits so you get less each bite. But being premium means presentation is a big part of price.

[@milenakupiec1839]

Ah, only had a sea urchin once on a beach in Sicily, fresh from the sea, from a man who was very generous giving us one of the ones he had just caught. A very memorable experience.

[@johnjenkins4788]

Disgusting

[@BossOfAllTrades]

I thought this was some weird innuendo

[@alvinkoeswanto8622]

For those who think the solution is to grow more kelp, well, kelp needs cold water which rich in oxygen to thrive. With the rising sea water temperature, it's not that easy to grow kelp.

[@abdulmustaan485]

بھت خوب

[@safermonk]

Fixing this aint gonna be easy...not sure we can even. Were in a mess.

[@WelfareChrist]

is it me or is like every ocean fact I've been hearing for the past ten years super depressing.

[@SeaCaptBritRob]

These harvesters are simply profiteering, they care less about restoring the ecosystem. The kelp don't stand a chance regardless of sea temperature. With all the melting ice caps, sea temperature has been great for kelp so that's BS pal

[@ross-carlson]

@@SeaCaptBritRob "With all the melting ice caps, sea temperature has been great for kelp so that's BS pal" - WHAT? Dude, that's NOT how it works - the reason the ice caps are melting is due to INCREASED temperature, it's not like that cold water makes its way down to California, do you not understand how MASSIVELY huge the Earth and it's oceans are? HAHAHA, melting ice caps lower ocean temps thousands of miles away, HAHAHA. I love the arrogance of normal people thinking they know better than scientists who literally study a topic for decades. Wow.

[@latetotheparty4785]

They’re also processed in Sacramento. I tell people they’re eating gonads, but few believe me. My husband was a professional urchin and abalone diver, then he managed a processing plant. On our first date, he explained he was inventing an urchin processing machine based on bilateral biological symmetry. I asked if he could spell that, and he could. We had a spectacular marriage until his peaceful passing. I gave his ashes to the jellyfish off Moss Landing in the Monterey, while a pair of whales breached off the port bow.

[@atherisGAY]

I am so, so sorry for your loss. What a wonderful scenery you describe, scattering his ashes. May he rest in peace

[@FallFluff]

May he rest in peace. Thank you for this information, it's extremely interesting to me as a person from Sacramento.

[@HyBrad]

That was my favorite thing to do when people tried it for the first time when I worked at a sushi restaurant. Right when they take the first bite, I would ask them if they knew what it was. Priceless.

[@Cra-en6mj]

😭😭 I ate a few sometime ago in Japan, and just found out in this video that they were gonads

[@kidkique]

If you're back on the market I too can Spell biological bilateral symmetry

[@bluu.youtube]

23. They said "gonads" 23 times in this video, in case you were wondering.

[@colinbanning9416]

That seems low tbh

[@adriennefloreen]

You counted?

[@Broockle]

thank you for your service

[@fynkozari9271]

The stuff Americans wouldnt eat.

[@porc1429]

Really? It seems much higher

[@Sorcerers_Apprentice]

Sea urchins grew out of control and destroyed a lot of kelp forests in the early 20th century after people overhunted sea otters for their fur. After they stopped hunting and reintroduced sea otters, they're eating the urchins and slowly getting their numbers under control, helping kelp forests grow back.

[@jarrodyuki7081]

no we humans want sea urchins.

[@boogieheads]

Very very slowly

[@derpychicken2131]

That’s only up by Washington state. Down in California the main predators are predatory starfish. A virus came through and absolutely destroyed their population, we should be focusing on restoring the starfish populations

[@luismurcia1702]

but we are eating the red ones not the purple ones. wouldnt it be better to do a cull on the purple and not harvest the red ones for a while so their numbers grow a bit again and help kelp grow

[@magatism]

Try mosquitoes and bats, that will do you a lot of good. 😃😃😃

[@locke3862]

As a CA, I totally support this. They are taking over and destroying kelp ecosystems here in the Monterey bay

[@muqriz6792]

That's why it is pretty appropriate for us to eat em, its good for the ecosystem

[@graphite2786]

Sadly it's the other species, the ones that aren't marketable that are proliferating and decimating the kelp. However these species could make an excellent biodynamic organic fertilizer or even chicken/ fish feed supplement. Hopefully some entrepreneur will start harvesting these other species and allow the kelp to recover!

[@crujones4046]

They’re like the homeless of the sea.

[@privatebaldric8767]

@@crujones4046 😂

[@eddiemarohl5789]

@@crujones4046 lol

[@danielrestauro4505]

Here in the Philippines, Sea Urchins can be found anywhere within the rocky areas of the sea. But the difference is that they are not as huge and healthy like those in Santa Barbara. They are sold per bottle and it's really cheap. Fishermen sell them $2.17 per bottle. It's so cool that seeing these kind of unis in different parts of the world and looking totally different from what we usually have here in our country. I love sea urchins and it will forever be my favorite sea food!

[@IzanamiYumi]

Ayy weh san??? I buy sea urchin pero from Japanese restaraunts mdalas

[@schnitzel_enjoyer]

If its american, european or japanese of they will scam you and try to sell it like its gold

[@MarvinTabingo-lp4yz]

Dami neto samin😂😂 hnd ko pinapansin ngaun takam na takam na neto😅😅

[@NoName-yi3oz]

Madaming ganyan, kaso yong masasarap na klase konte na lang sa province namin

[@adlirez]

@DonnellOkafor-pd7yn I think I’ve had crappy urchins so far, but in my experience, they just taste like… the smell of the ocean somehow made into a flavor you can taste. (I don’t like the smell of the ocean that much)

[@TheOhfishes]

Ignoring the purple urchins while eliminating their competitors. Yeah, good sustainable business plan right there…

[@DeadPixelCreatives]

I know right. You really hit the nail in the head with this comment. I'm also wondering why won't just they harvest the purple urchins while waiting for the red urchin and kelp recover. I know it's not as profitable and as high quality than red urchin, but at least it they are currently on surplus and they can sell a lot of them on lower cost. Thus, making it affordable and will surely introduce this to a new market, the general populace. It's a generally win-win situation to the public, nature and the Uni fishermen.

[@hullbreachdetected4846]

@@DeadPixelCreatives Probably because there's no demand for purple ones.

[@DeadPixelCreatives]

@@hullbreachdetected4846they can still try to market them for the general populace. I'm sure there are lot of common folks and budget sushi restaurant owners willing to purchase affordable options. They can also catch them to be used in other industries, like to be used as natural fertilizer or to make animal feed. As they stated, the purple ones are the one who keeps the kelp from recovering. They need to control their population to aid the red uni. That's just my opinion.

[@hullbreachdetected4846]

@@DeadPixelCreatives That would be ideal, but these people are going for the option that brings the greatest profit for their efforts. They aren't that much interested in the survival of Urchin species or any species for that matter. They know how to scuba dive and that's it, they aren't educated people nor any intellectual ones to begin with. They just go for the money and consider it a job to survive in society, like most people.

[@smatchimo55]

@@DeadPixelCreatives you're missing the point: the purple dont have the pieces that people want even in them. they are useless. being California, there is not going to be any culling because it is California....

[@k.leedolam4628]

we need to market purple urchins, i’ve had some myself and although they are smaller they are just as sweet! california has thousands of those purple urchins - we need to find some way to sell them

[@hamsterfloat]

I am not sure on this one. Most of Urchins are not edible and even toxic.

[@harveyspecter111]

Yeah Americans can eat everything but plants.

[@geesegoose6174]

@@hamsterfloat what are you talking about?

[@sakurashogun]

@@hamsterfloat while true, both of these varieties are edible.

[@tokyodude2715]

Ship them to Asia.

[@JoeMenjivar]

This is easily the most I have heard the word "gonad" used in a single sitting.

[@ER-uy7ct]

I KNOW RIGHT?! I was going to use this for life science.....but then realized having someone say gonads that many times in a 4th grade class.......yeah.....

[@JustEndah]

Hahahahahah

[@exiledintheus7251]

This is the best reply ever lol

[@davidjames666]

@@ER-uy7ct remember never use the abbreviation for the British Broadcasting Company with them either. Many teachers learned that. BBC should not be said.

[@srijonroy7084]

Lmfao

[@tekashiii]

Its great to know that not all species are edible. Theres thousands of these in my local beach and im getting so tempted to eat one.

[@nmmk9134]

I know I almost go to the beach and crack one to taste it.

[@HyBrad]

@@nmmk9134 Depending on where you live. On the California coast there are 2 species, both are edible. One is choice.

[@03stmlax]

"the gonads are extremely fragile" --- got that right

[@revy1063]

lmao exactly my thought.

[@asiaking9422]

Om what a comparison. Lol

[@rachaeldsouza4866]

That’s what she said 😂

[@miss_mcqall5082]

😆

[@lewishamel8105]

"Water is wet"

[@Lerrae1908]

This is partly impacted by sea otter populations. They dont discriminate urchins like we do, and that population control allows kelp to grow back while also increasing pressure on the 'less desirable' urchins, allowing more variety to compete and survive.

[@Broockle]

yes yes RELEASE THE OTTERS!

[@AllenHanPR]

@@Broockle History has shown when you bring one predator to solve a problem it becomes another decades later. Possibly too much otters might impact the sea life and otters might overpopulate.

[@Broockle]

@@AllenHanPR It's kinda happening by itself anyway the way I see it and it's humans that are over selecting the red urchins so.... The Otters clearly know better than we do.

[@TheDancing0wind]

@@AllenHanPR otters are not a "new" predator in California kelp forests - they are native. The problems kelp forests have is because ppl hunted urchin eating otters for their fur in the first place.

[@talorzwilliamz4134]

💛👏I love you brought this up

[@LeRadia]

In my country, PH, sea urchins are priced cheap, since we're surrounded by a sea and an ocean. Ofcourse, the price gets more and more expensive the farther you are from the body of water. It costs around 1 PHP - 5 PHP (around 0.05 USD) when I first tried it years ago, but now it should be around 10-50 PHP(around (0.20 -1 USD). You can also get a lot for free if you accompany your fisherman friend since there's literally a lot of them in the sea. Sadly, restaurants in cities tend to overprice them.

[@nobodyguy4737]

Yeah when my family go to a vacation in this island called kirikiti island (also known shark island since it's there has a lot of sharks in it we're just lucky/unlucky cuz they're not there since the sharks there are not aggressive and most divers would just swim besides them also the corals there are either creepy or beautiful since I saw one coral and it looks like it's staring through my soul😅) the island has a lot of corals and a lot of sea urchin me, my brother and the fisherman dived in to get some we caught a lot we made sure we caught a lot since sea urchin destroys corals

[@frederickoftheartic2209]

Still haven't tasted a cheap sea urchin, I rarely go to the coast...

[@commscan314]

Kind of like how in Maine lobster is dirt cheap and then the further you go from Maine the more expensive they get.

[@MarangTamburiki]

They sell it cheap in Camiguin and in some parts of Cebu or Bohol. If you want sea urchin "on-the-go" there are bottles sold in the nearest supermarket.. 🙂

[@bimo176]

Totally agree.

[@Movie_Games]

Where can I buy cheap B grade gonads?

[@kidkique]

mens locker room

[@ANPC-pi9vu]

I think it was only five years ago that Florida was having a different issue with sea urchins being wiped out by a disease. Kelp makes them taste good, but is not the only thing they eat. They also eat algae which can kill corals if it goes unchecked, so efforts were made in coral reefs to increase the urchins in general to help save the dying reefs. It looks like they were successful with the urchins except that they are wiping out kelp now. It's always something.

[@CountingStars333]

Interesting.

[@dragonceo5911]

It's funny ANPC, because I think it was only five years ago that Australia was having a different issue with sea urchins being wiped out by a disease. Kelp makes them taste good, but is not the only thing they eat. They also eat algae which can kill corals if it goes unchecked, so efforts were made in coral reefs to increase the urchins in general to help save the dying reefs. It looks like they were successful with the urchins except that they are wiping out kelp now. It's always something.

[@Yelbomsirhc1]

Yes, the urchin Diadema antillarum died off from a disease, possibly exacerbated by anthropogenic factors like pollution. They eat algae, which competes with hard corals. If Diadema can come back then that would help corals compete for space better with algae.

[@amychan3864]

Balance is needed in all things

[@avelinebryan6034]

As a kiwi, I can say wholeheartedly that I've never needed to buy kina (that's what we call them here, it's Maori) and that they aren't THAT expensive but they also aren't sold in your average supermarkets. You'd need to get them from a fish market or from somewhere off a wharf that sells fresh fish and other seafood (Kai Moana) as the boats come in. Pretty cool other places enjoy kina as much as we do :)

[@tomdonovansmith9806]

Fellow kiwi here :D facts you can go diving for kina its common as

[@wills711]

@@tomdonovansmith9806 You don’t even need to dive

[@alexxcelestee]

They’re pretty cheap in Australia because we’re trying to cull them as they’re invading reefs! a lot of restaurants in Melbourne are trying to incorporate them into menus to support the cull

[@ceecadventure7599]

NZ gannggggg. I’ve seen soooo many Kina to the point where I don't even notice them anymore.

[@coverdesignwithameli5987]

I see them in paknsave for 30bucks a punnet too

[@triggahappyyt5420]

Imagine aliens harvesting humans just to eat our gonads lol.

[@白キロ]

"Dont eat me, my yogurt taste gross; it taste salty, smelly and sticky 🤮🤮💀"

[@morganzachlfich4309]

@@白キロ gonads bro not your yoghurt.

[@benoktorres9520]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@fmar.8311]

@@morganzachlfich4309 loooool

[@UltimateEntity]

:))

[@2bullcrap]

In the 70s, I would dive for urchins with a crew off of the Channel Islands mainly, San Nicholas. We used hooka rigs connected to a manifold that was connected to our volume tanks for air. Our boat was spontaneous combustion for starting the engine and we had two large volume tanks. We had three divers and one tender on the surface. Our nets were on bicycle rims and we kept the tender busy. We sold to Maruhide at $0.17 to $0.20 a pound wet. The boat got paid first...fuel,food,etc. Good times! Joe Biff burgers were the best at Fish Harbor.

[@SpicyButterflyWings]

Other people have also said it, but they really should try harvesting the purple urchins and marketing them as a more budget friendly alternative. Helps to make their business more sustainable by taking less stress off the kelp forests, and opens the market up to more people. I love sushi but have never tried uni before because of the price. Would be willing to try it out, even the "inferior" variety, if it was more affordable or available.

[@sleepyninjarin7971]

i think the issue may also be the amount of food in each purple urchin, like they would need to collect and clean so many for a smaller amount of inferior product (otherwise they better start harvesting me some purple urchins!)

[@ameliakalagher7737]

Unfortunately, there is just so much effort involved in cleaning out a purple urchin for so little uni, that it negates any cost differential you might get from them being easier to find. It's the same problem that's going on with invasive green crabs in the United States - it would be wonderful to create a market for them, but they're too small to be marketable. I'm a marine conservationist and these are some of the great difficult-to-solve problems of our time.

[@atherisGAY]

They're still the same work harvesting and cleaning, for less profit. Capitalism doesn't care about nature. The profit margin needs to be increased

[@matthewcooper4248]

Do y'all really think that people who have been doing this for 15 years haven't thought of that and rejected it for a reason?

[@fqertexirte3054]

Answer is money, its just unprofitable, so shut up and pay 100 bucks for a sushi

[@ggchiu7400]

It might be a good idea to harvest the purple sea urchins too. Yes there's less gonads, but they are harming the environment and hurting the sea urchin business, it would just make sense to catch them and eat them anyway for sustainability

[@corbingreiner9879]

She left out info. There are a set number of urchin licenses in Calf. The price between A+ and B grade is 2-3X . Your boat costs stays the same regardless.

[@88porpoise]

Are people willing to pay more for them than the cost to collect and process them? If they aren't, nobody is going to collect and process them. And keep in mind that processing purple urchins for sale will be more expensive than red urchins as they will need to process more urchins to get a given weight of the end product. And that same weight of end product will be worth less than from red urchins.

[@kctjohnson]

Over 30 years ago, not many people knew to eat sea urchins, so when I went to Half Moon Bay in San Francisco with my mom to get fresh fish, the fishermen weren't even selling the urchins they had accidentally picked up in their net. I told them I wanted them and they sold me an urchin for a dollar. I bought 3, took them home, and used a chisel and hammer to open them up. 😂 They were sooooo gooooood!

[@susanaa.6692]

Are they red or purple?

[@kctjohnson]

@@susanaa.6692 It was so long ago I can’t remember. I remember black liquid oozing out of the urchin when I cracked it open though 😂

[@ValentinoMarino11]

@@kctjohnson Very interesting how much Urchin has grown in the market. Especially red urchin. We need more purple urchin harvested, they’re consuming too much coral!

[@mooncow-io]

I grew up in HMB…it’s not in SF. It is it’s own city. 😅

[@kctjohnson]

@@mooncow-io I m’est to say Bay Area

[@Das_Red]

Sea urchins : "hello, im below the water, pls halp me."

[@TreDogOfficial]

I HATE sea urchins when swimming!! When the tide pushes you into the the sea floor, and you see a spikey ball just waiting to prick you, that's when I lose it

[@holeindanssock156]

Lul where you live? 😊

[@abbymerchant2069]

just crack them open and eat them on the spot for spite

[@joel_okdasnsbbeb]

@@abbymerchant2069 lol

[@onlyriders3896]

@@abbymerchant2069 bahah love this comment almost fell off the toilet.

[@gfuentes8449]

when does the tide push you into the sea floor?

[@florix7889]

In France you buy the whole "oursin" and eat it on bread and butter. Tried it only once but it was pretty good

[@Bonzi_Buddy]

Reminds me of crawfish. They're invasive and pervasive and yet overpriced.

[@hypetrained]

Wow, really? I normally don't think of crawfish as overpriced in the regions that can get them, right?

[@almightycornholio448]

@@hypetrained Getting them fresh can be overpriced, theyre cheaper frozen but what's the point?

[@TerryFT86]

@@hypetrained seafood is all about how fresh it is.

[@aleafazio6431]

In Louisiana it’s cheap fresh

[@Broockle]

De hek? Craw Fish look exactly like Lobsters. Is this like a Raven Crow thing?

[@EverybodysEnoch]

If anyone is curious. It tastes like butter, its butter with a hint of ocean it's quite nice

[@NZnolimit]

Here in New Zealand it is yellow gold. Kina as we call them in Māori. Creamy and delicioso. Love to eat them by itself or with fry bread.

[@lukecage275]

I remember taking a loaf of bread down to the rocks at Pakatoa island when I worked there to crack open Kina and eat with the bread.

[@NZnolimit]

@@lukecage275 good memories

[@superuce]

Seki uce

[@stuartlees1298]

I used to crack them while diving in NZ, and use them to hand-catch leatherjackets

[@goingdark187]

What would you say they taste like?

[@ian1988]

In NZ, they are used as bait for fishing and you can go out and dive for as many as you want. Also called Kina.

[@thatonekidyouknow5263]

Mate im from new zealand aswell and ive never heard the idea of using a kina for bait i tend to use mostly rainbow trout. Since id rather eat the kina. Mainly go diving out east coast around whakatane and sometimes to waihau bay

[@KLK01]

How the heck do you even use an urchin as bait for fish?

[@PuRpLePoNcHo]

Last time I checked it is 50 per person, could just be north island

[@ioijiopjkiopjkp]

There's a catch limit on Kina, hope you realize that.

[@lisadartnall9097]

@@KLK01 you smash it under the water and the fish swoop in to eat it up!

[@braunarsch]

maybe harvest the purple and the big ones equally so that both populations grow equally and neither destroy the kelp...

[@Da5thProject]

People don't get paid to clean up the purple urchins and ud be killing them purely for population control but people would say that's not ethically right either.

[@Ranger-sl3qq]

@@Da5thProject the urchins are invasive like lion fish people get paid to get them off shores in cali

[@theanphiban7160]

@@Ranger-sl3qq actually purple sea urchins and Red Sea urchins are native along all the shores of the Pacific Northwest from California to Northern BC and Alaska

[@Ranger-sl3qq]

@@theanphiban7160 yeah but the recent explosion in their kelp consumption was an adaption I’m pretty sure, right? I forgot

[@joshs3775]

@@Da5thProject those people are too short sighted to see the much greater dead from starvation once the kelp is gone

[@thenephilim9819]

Seems like we'd have to find a way to market purple urchins as a delicacy to reduce its population.

[@1.4142]

During the 2014-16 El Nino, a heatwave on the west coast killed 95% of kelp, which were replaced by urchin barrens. Bull kelp has only started to recover in 2021.

[@ask230]

She loves reminding us that these are "gonads." 😂

[@Lara-xu3yc]

I distinctly remember during the holidays as a kid my dad would eat these sea urchin raw after diving for them at various beaches around Victoria, Australia.. completely oblivious to how expensive they are 🤣 I just thought they were cool ass little critters 😊

[@eyyyo3974]

I just tasted this for the first time last week when I came to japan, and trust me when I say I didn't expect its taste. At first I was hesitant to try it bc I thought it would be bitter from all the videos I've seen of people opening it, but it was actually kinda sweet? I don't know how to explain it but I really liked it's taste.

[@Eric-wu3hr]

You also need to mention the lack of sea otters, as a keystone species, without them the urchin population skyrockets, kills all the kelp, and screws over the ecosystem. The sea otters are killed by Killer Whales, who like their name, normally eat whales. As a result of human influence, killer whales haven't been able to find enough whales to eat, eating sea otters now. We have triggered a trophic cascade that screws over the whole ecosystem, and in the end the very urchin divers. we need to not only harvest quality urchins, but also those that damage the ecosystem. We cant remove the whales, so the only way to fix this damage is to remove more of them from the water.

[@fisheye9559]

Problem?

[@Gregy624]

Super interesting

[@rocketman3285]

Cool story.

[@anotoman123]

"Killer Whales" imply that they are whales that kill. The name does not imply they kill whales, else they would've been called "Whale Killers". It's like saying Monkey-eating Eagles are monkeys that eat eagles.

[@eddiemarohl5789]

@@anotoman123 Was gonna say orcas have a very broad list of things they feed on and only eat whales rarely

[@emmasmith9808]

In new Zealand we get them for free, out of the sea. We call them Kina. Not my favourite food for sure, very acquired taste lol

[@mountebank5034]

@beef of Sindu It tastes just like a rich egg yolk paste lol had it b4 twice

[@when_life_gives_you_limes]

@@mountebank5034 ugh, I hate the taste of egg yolks if eaten alone without the whites.

[@when_life_gives_you_limes]

@beef hajmola I'm ok with raw or still runny yolks but can't stand those fully cooked ones.

[@when_life_gives_you_limes]

@beef hajmola i dunno how to describe its taste, it's too rich & bland for my liking when they're cooked, I find the grainy texture also a bit yucky. I am ok with half boiled eggs or sunny side ups where the yolk is still runny but once the yolk is cooked till it's hardened I can't, unless it's scrambled eggs or omelette where the whites are mixed with the yolks.

[@Hugh.G.Rectionx]

@@when_life_gives_you_limes yeah if youre that much of a picky eater you probably wouldnt eat them

[@elcheapo5302]

I had no idea "gonad inspector" was a legit job title.

[@jpablo700]

Yup. It's right there next to gonad polisher.

[@thepettiestpersonever6534]

I have had that title for 20+ years in Los Angeles, San Diego, Palm Springs and Orange County.

[@goingdark187]

@@thepettiestpersonever6534 You'd think it would be a popular title for people in San Francisco. har har

[@runner4life1984]

Ok Sir! Turn your head & Cough!🤣🤣🤣

[@Somethingshouldgohere]

El cheapo 😂

[@hoddy007]

Very interesting! We have sea urchins (or Kina) in abundance in New Zealand. My father used to gather them all the time and we used to sit on the beach and eat them fresh from the shell.

[@duckyduck3070]

my dad had a friend in vietnam who grew sea urchins, we ate them for free

[@papihuey]

How did it taste?

[@duckyduck3070]

@@papihuey it was really good, i enjoyed it raw with soysauce

[@randydominguez666]

@@duckyduck3070 its fishy?

[@deathrodamus9608]

@@duckyduck3070 what food can you compare it to?

[@hamzasat]

@@randydominguez666 No.. it is oceany...it tastes like if you take a concentrate shut of ocean's water... I don't know how to describe it in other words. but this is what I felt the first time I tried it. It's really good ☺️

[@natalichoi282]

Here in South Korea, sea urchin bibimbop is considered a special meal early in spring. I'm looking forward to eating the fantastic taste.

[@georgehaffen4105]

My buddy who is Korean tells me that Koreans enjoy Sea Urchins because apparently they can boost your sex drive and stamina haha

[@makeupdiaries6438]

I don't know if any sea urchin can be harvested, but I remember free diving once and the shallows were filled with sea urchins. We were trying so hard to float because it felt like there was less than a foot between us and the spines as we swam to the deep. They were just there, like a vast carpet.

[@MohamedMagdy_94]

Thank you for making this documentary. I wanted to learn more about sea urchins, and thanks to you, I actually did learn about them in an entertaining way.

[@rachidabelhannachi9100]

I ate this like 20 years ago-in algeria. Local people used to collect them and sell them to beach goers. I have no clue if i ate it cooked or raw but all i can remember is that it was really tasty.

[@borbleborb4586]

Normal people: I think I’ll have a sandwich today! Rich people: _urchin nuts_

[@applepie9806]

To be fair, it's DELICIOUS creamy urchin nuts. One of my favourite foods. And it's not really rich people thing, people in phillippines collect and eat them as a family activity and they cost less than 1 usd apiece.

[@Cokknine333]

@@applepie9806 *creamy nuts*

[@RJ-mj4sh]

@@Cokknine333 📷🤨

[@UpVade]

normal people eat kina

[@lgo9933]

it's not surprising, people eat male fish nuts too

[@DelRae]

My pre guess is the cost is a combination of timely shipping as it’s a seafood product that can rot very quickly unless under very specific conditions, the demand of certain places just isn’t high enough to have a healthy consistent market that can gradually lower its price, and probably because there’s some fenagling the same way diamonds are marked up by being “rare” or very uncommon in the market itself

[@taylorthompson9752]

Now I’m convinced to try my first sea urchin

[@elenad6180]

In Sardinia (an island west of Rome) urchin fishing has been outlawed because of the high demand, but, during the winter you can get as many as you’d like. It’s my childhood! I would fish some with my father, pick them up with out hands or our a pair of marine scissors. Then, we cut them down the side and have some bread and white wine along side it! Sea urchins are by far one of my favorite foods :)

[@somerandomfella]

Sea Urchin are fkn tasty and eating it actually helps the oceans as they're considered pests. I wish people would eat urchin instead of a tasteless destructive shark fin.

[@millswill9878]

1. sea urchin taste like ass 2. shark fins are not for taste but its used brcause people think it's "medicinal"

[@qaiwiwi]

@@millswill9878 Okay but aren't sharks endangered? They need their fins to navigate and swim in the ocean, without it, they'll die.

[@sacoto98]

@@millswill9878 sea urchin tastes like the ocean

[@KaleidoSTAR_PH]

in Philippines, Sea Urchin (or Tuyom) is relatively common and consider here as pests its a problem for beach goers and fishermen since it can get caught along with their nets

[@w1seguys]

Now it makes sense why the Sea Urchin ceviche at Dorsia is so expensive!

[@Benni777]

This series is interesting, but usually, when a product/service is so expensive, the product/service is low, and demand is high. Or the way that the product or service is made s complicated, that can also increase the price; basic economics ☺️

[@shawnlee6633]

Can’t argue with that lol

[@valientesantanina5898]

wow I never thought that sea urchins cost that much! i live in a coastal part of Cebu in Philippines were sea urchins (colorful one) are basically everywhere when it's low tide. when it happens, the people here will bring their own bucket to place the urchins they had picked. It's like a leisure activity and family get together here. some of them are families and they'll bring corn rice and coke w them to eat freshly picked urchins together. but if you don't feel to go there you can buy a bucket of urchins for $0.50 only

[@applepie9806]

Is there a specific time to go pick them for more meat? I heard they are seasonal.

[@bobbill8487]

Yeah cause a plate of gonads that go for a hundred is more than 50 urchins and most of the cost comes from the cleaning and processing

[@i537]

I went to a resort on a small island in the Pacific and there were so many of these but I didn't know at the time they were edible. I found out after when the show Lost showed the Japanese guy eating one. I still haven't tried it and it's been 25yrs.

[@jungschiffer8423]

They said if you eat caramel flan together with soy sauce, it would take like uni

[@rcordh5657]

@@jungschiffer8423 nope, fresh sea urchin taste like sea water and leaving creamy taste almost like seaweed after. its don't taste like salty caramel at all

[@jungschiffer8423]

@@rcordh5657 I've never eaten uni in my life and now I feel like I've been scammed 😂

[@tastyneck]

@@jungschiffer8423 There is some sweetness to uni but not literally like caramel flan.

[@applepie9806]

@@jungschiffer8423 No way. It's more like the foie gras of the sea, with a sea smelling creamy unique pungent flavor. There's sweet or bitter ones. Japan even has sea urchin spaghetti in saizeriya, which is super tasty.

[@IamME-id8mg]

I was going to try to be a worker on one of these boats until I found out one of the benefits wasn't an _'all you can eat buffet'._ I guess I can't blame them though. I could eat uni all day long. _I'm talking about _*_ALL DAY LONG!_*

[@言って-b5b]

Amazing how the value of sea urchins vary in each country. In the Philippines, it is well-known as Tuyom. Tuyom are being garnered by fishermen or any local people living near the sea without safety harness and just pure power of breathing. I know because I have witnessed it firsthand. It is also very cheap for I ate three tuyoms for just a dollar. It tastes better when partnered with the sellers' special sauce. Although we do not eat these at fancy restaurants, and can only be done when we do island hopping.

[@shariahifff8213]

Yes

[@qara_ch]

Tuyom (long-spined sea urchins) are inferior for eating due to their small size and are usually just ignored. What we do harvest all the time are called "Swaki", which are larger with shorter spines and are also sweeter-tasting.

[@keweplz]

In Chile we call them erizos de mar (sea porccupine) and they sell them in brine in plastic containers or jars at the local fish markets, they are still expensive but not as expensive as the ones in the video

[@GastNdorf]

Please please do not mention special sauce when talking about eating gonads ಠ_ಠ

[@nekogyu6986]

we eat them fresh/with vinegar or it’s added as the main ingredient in a soup and it’s not that expensive here in the Philippines. When you go to the sea with rocks you can spot a sea urchin already and there are many of them in my place.

[@nobodywatchesnooby]

same here lol, just do a little walking and you can find one big enough to share with friends

[@jedyalta5353]

HAHAHAHA natatawa ako kase pinupulot lang namin yan sa ilalim ng dagat tas nilalagyan ng suka tapos mababalitaan kulang na tig 100$ pala yan sa ibang bansa😭✊

[@Richie4corn]

It's not expensive because its low quality

[@scottmathes3647]

Always cracks me up how prized these are. Born in SB and having a Father that worked off-shore so every weekend visiting him, (parents divorced), we spent our weekends at the harbor as all of his buddy's were fishermen or Urchin divers and would see constant boxes of Urchin being offloaded at Santa Barbara Harbor. And this was way before Sushi was remotely popular. (I'm old) And as a kid, always wondered why so many were being harvested.

[@hao-san128]

Low number of natural enemies for sea urchins? Homosapien: Let me introduce myself

[@rach_rey8537]

It was in Puerto Galera when I had my first sea urchin, fresh from a fisherman who had it in a basket and sold it for 50 pesos ($1) a piece. He had a bottle of vinegar with him, too. I can't remember the taste anymore since it's been years, but I remember how intimidated I was at it at first and how pleasantly surprised I was with its taste. Hope to have it again soon.

[@iagreewithyou3478]

Fresh, it tastes like the sea with a bit of sweetness.

[@TalkToMeInTagalog]

I'll definitely give sea urchins a try soon. I've been so intrigued by them for quite a while now.

[@meluk6991]

Mahal

[@eduardochavacano]

Go to a Japanese or Korean restaurants to be safe.

[@ruru9796]

You can taste them if you go Island hopping in PH they are served fresh

[@milkymans]

ive tried them at a japanese sushi place and i hated it, not my kinda dish. it tasted like clorox lmao

[@meluk6991]

@@milkymans 😆@clorox... yeah, it's an acquired taste. That said, I'm good without. 👍

[@ChrisTailor]

Accidentally stepped on a sea urchin once on holiday in Greece when I was 8 - would NOT recommend… haha

[@swindle888yamani2]

Damn i can only imagine the pain taking out the spikes

[@Dricrazybankedball]

Is it as painful as cactus

[@Aiden-.]

@@Dricrazybankedball imagine that but worse 👍

[@danx8482]

Same, in Asturias, Spain. Luckily, I was next to a local clinic and a nurse take it out.

[@user-xd8cn8fg6e]

Lucky you stepped on a sea urchin instead of a stone fish

[@Monkeydictatorship]

people paying a full check to eat a sea urchin, sea otters munching on them every day for free🤣🤣🤣

[@ats6880]

Okay. But who was the first person to look at a sea urchin and thought. I wonder if that tastes good😂 I never would have even thought about it

[@TheBooban]

Robinson Crusoe? Like all foods, people once starved. They learned to try everything over thousands of years. I do also wonder if kings made their slaves and servants test eating things too.

[@Tonyhouse1168]

I literally think that about most vegetables. “That looks terrible, I should put it in my mouth!”

[@rachelgrubb4500]

some people like them kind of a metalic taste ... we call them Kina here. not my thing lol leave it to the Otters.

[@ioijiopjkiopjkp]

Literally thousands of people when they were starving before mass agriculture

[@adriennefloreen]

I assume they must've been so hungry that they'd eat any shellfish they could find, and they found that one.

[@em-oh-ji3853]

I’m from Bohol Philippines. Me and my family used to go in the beach in the afternoon bring rice and we get urchin by ourself and eat dinner. Otherwise you can buy this fresh from the fisherman. you can also buy this in the market which fishermen already put in the bottle.

[@Richie4corn]

Pag pag 😂

[@em-oh-ji3853]

@@Richie4corn hahah are you saying it's yuck?

[@marylynnealatraca8623]

I live on an island where there are a lot of sea urchins but the prices are just about $3 - 4 per bucket or sometimes more cheaper.

[@alyssamilanostarofteenwolf3241]

I don't believe the $3 a bucket part.

[@applepie9806]

Where are you, is it the phillippines? I'm gathering places to visit for fresh urchin

[@bacon_boi7735]

Sea Urchin: Haha i have a hard and spikey shell nothing can hurt me :) Human: Hmm this very dangerous spikey ball looks good ima eat it

[@coasterland1920]

In Jeju, Korea we have Henyu which means Ocean ladies. They literally dive to collect all kinds of sea creatures just with a dive suit and a goggle.

[@NAFUSO1]

I played a drinking game and took a shot every time the word gonad was said and I finished all the available whiskey in Ohio.

[@Mark-wn5rk]

"Look at this benign creature" Someone from Asia "wait we can eat that"

[@leepaklong6971]

.......

[@ruisilva2123]

It is also eaten in Europe by europeans. I am portuguese and my family eat it for centuries. Celts ate it.

[@blitheapathy3552]

Huh, when I was learning SCUBA off the coast of California my teacher used to crack them open (the bad tasting ones) to attract fish for good photos. An the good ones eat them on the boat. It's actually really good.

[@tendrylknyte8391]

People really out here saying "we should eat less of these guys" don't know what kind of impact they make on the environment 😅

[@isDatBoi]

what? Can you just make a proper statement pls

[@MasonStoijck]

@@isDatBoi or you could research it yourself ?

[@tendrylknyte8391]

@@isDatBoi if you watched the video properly they mentioned how kelp forests have largely diminished due to how fast these guys reproduce and consume at the same time. kelp is basically like trees in the way it absorbs heat but for the ocean. which is the reason the ocean's waters are rising in temperature. they're important to the ecosystem, sure. but not if the area has none of their predators helping with population control. overfishing has led to this and it's our job now to be their predators to say the least.

[@tengkualiff]

Yea urchins are freakin pests

[@bryunmsimango2632]

@@tendrylknyte8391 what you are suggesting is not a solution. We are beyond the point of leaving a single species and expecting nature to find balance because so many other aspects of nature have been disrupted by global warming. The urchins are now in far greater number than they naturally would have been if we as human were aware of our impact 100 years ago. The sea urchins natural predator otters were hunted to near extinction. By fishing now we are in fact fulfilling its role to keep sea urchin populations under a modicum of control.

[@bloatedtreeful]

Urchin Gonads = great band name.

[@Statikzhok]

Sadly there are not that many predators remaining to take control over the population of "bad" urshins in the ocean. At least thats the case in here in Chile 🇨🇱. But one thing is true, urshin is a delicacy.

[@a6am3mn0n]

The red v purple urchin competition shows that evolution doesn't necessary favor having bigger balls.

[@kesvir6476]

First person to eat a sea urchin: Lemme just stick these gonads in my mouth.

[@somerandomfella]

The only gonads I'll glady stick in my mouth.

[@nikosfilipino]

Here in cali you can get a fishing/foraging license for like $50 a year and collect pretty much an endless supply of urchin yet you'll still pay like $10-20 for a single piece of uni nigiri

[@entrepreneurialadventures760]

California makes you PAY to forage... I'm sorry but that's ridiculous... there's no way imma pay you just so that I can go out and get some dandelion greens for my salad

[@tomh1349]

The bag limit in California is 35 sea urchins, that's not endless. You have to think about when you harvest some of them, they don't always turn out good. Some of them inside are all brown and bitter tasting.

[@candidachii]

This is pretty common here in Philippines though, and it's cheap. It's so fun finding sea orchins and eating it together with you family members.♡♡

[@pinoycooltourandherstory5634]

This is a delicacy in my hometown Pilar. They taste so good. Harveste fresh. During one of our community service, we shared the goodness of sea urchin to our volunteers.

[@tinted5453]

them: sea urchins are expensive mean while philipines: ya one sea urchin cost for 1 dollar only

[@JesusSaviour4ALL]

Here in Melbourne Australia my kids eat it straight out if the ocean! So delicious 😋

[@sol_diver]

I love diving for sea urchin, to some it's a dalicacy we call it Kina in New Zealand 🇳🇿

[@Faustobellissimo]

What is the difference between the gonads of male and female sea urchins?

[@justinbui4715]

Honestly, I have tried these and I would recommend substituting it with avocados if you can’t handle fishy taste. Avocados have around the same creaminess, but do not have the fishiness of the sea urchins.

[@icedcat4021]

But arent sea urchins sweet?

[@krrrr8870]

"oh! fancy cornflakes" was my first thought when I saw the thumbnail 🙃

[@crischaofficial6814]

In the Philippines, when it comes to low tide, some people bringing some buckets to catch sea urchins, sea grapes, crabs and fishes. We like to ate sea urchins(salawaki) with vinegar, calamansi and spicy chilli. Sometimes I seen in the bottle of tanduay 270ml they will sell it for 50pesos or $1.

[@everlynedwards3805]

I ate sea archins so much for FREE that I got sick of it but now I'm feeling for it again

[@shintyty]

My friend goes diving so he invited me to watch him catch sea urchins here in west coast Canada. We made sushi after and we were joking how expensive it normally is because we were not appreciating the taste too much. It tastes like the sea with a creamy texture. I would rather eat tuna by far.

[@The_Savage_Wombat]

I tried to catch one once but it got away

[@shintyty]

@@The_Savage_Wombat I don’t think they move that fast

[@theuninvited264]

Go to the Philippines, particularly in provinces or areas near the beach. It's way cheaper, priced like a candy.

[@Richie4corn]

🤮😂

[@lunes-1]

There are beautiful sea creatures.i got a a white one Urchin 🌸on my 🐬Reef Tank and does a wonderful job eating algae 24/7,cost me about £17 on online 😀

[@1872patty]

We just eat haddock in scotland... Battered... With chips... Deep fried.... Salt and brown sauce... Dont ask what brown sauce is it's a bit of a mystery but my guess is it's brown and water all for 7 quid... Straight forward not a gonad in sight

[@fistovuzi]

*checks haggis recipe* heart, liver, lungs, chopped up fine and boiled in the stomach sac. dude, i'd rather the gonads. WHAT THE HELL IS EVEN THAT?!

[@ron2busi]

Watching Spiky Gold Hunters on KZbin. New Zealand free diving for huge Sea Urchins. I was amazed at how they did it for 8 hours and free diving in really rough waters!

[@robmurray32]

My fave sea food by far we call them kina down here kina on toast with melted butter is the go to for me

[@FinznFowl82]

We use them for bait to catch fish, a very tasty sea creature that has fins and scales but more importantly, lots of meat. Those people should try fishing some time.

[@persephoneblack888]

The Japanese sushi restaurant near my house sells sea urchin sushi and I've been tempted to try it. It's very expensive but I do like new foods.