Department of Fisheries and Oceans / Halifax County Sea Urchin Harvesters Association / Ian Barkhouse / National Research Council Canada

FPTT Technology Transfer Award

Department of Fisheries and Oceans /
Halifax County Sea Urchin Harvesters Association /
Ian Barkhouse / National Research Council Canada

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Development of a strategy and protocol to significantly enhance the sea urchin industry in Nova Scotia

Robert Miller
Bedford Institute of Oceanography, DFO

Allen Baker
Halifax County Sea Urchin Harvesters Association

Ian Barkhouse
Biologist

Andy Woyewoda
Industrial Research Assistance Program, NRC

Spiny sea urchins may be the bane of salt-water divers and swimmers but off the eastern shore of Nova Scotia they are now coveted as 'found money' by struggling coastal fisheries. A simple but ingenious method of increasing the roe content of sea urchins harvested in controlled conditions from October to April has increased the commercial value of stock by as much as five times. The two-year project is a model prototype of co-operation between a local interest group, the Halifax County Sea Urchin Harvesters Association, the Bedford Institute of Oceanography of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) of the National Research Council. Together, the team devised and implemented ways to manipulate the sea urchin's feeding environment and, as a result, substantially enlarge the size of the roe. As with most inventions, identifying the problem was the first step to finding a better way to carry out an age-old tradition. The Japanese, who dominate the world-wide urchin market and import the bulk of Canadian production, equate the delicacy of taste with high roe content, a golden orange colour and a low age. The difficulty was that the roe content of the Canadian export depended on unpredictable variables, which include the migration and feeding habits of urchins. Since the roe yield cannot be measured when the urchin is alive, many of the harvests yielded only five- to 10-per-cent roe content and sold for a mere 50 cents a pound. As well, urchins tend to overpopulate certain areas, destroying the very kelp beds they need for feeding.

The solution was a calculated series of steps to develop strategies and protocols to shepherd sea urchins onto identifiable and thriving sea kelp beds. In 1995, at the advice of Dr. Robert Miller, a sea urchin specialist, the DFO changed the nature of the fishery by creating three-to-seven-mile-wide management zones for 17 licence holders. This allowed the eight members of the Harvesters Association, formed for this purpose, to concentrate on increasing the value of the urchins in their own zones. The group then undertook an IRAP-sponsored project to hire biologist Ian Barkhouse and follow an experimental plan to observe urchin habits and develop techniques to cluster them on kelp beds replenished with bundles collected manually from the beach or from other healthier beds. As well, Barkhouse and Association president Allen Baker traveled to California with the help of IRAP to investigate alternate mechanized methods and techniques. The result: the winter harvest of 1997-1998 had a roe content of as much as 15 per cent that fetched $2.50 a pound on the Japanese market, which now considers Nova Scotia sea urchins to be the best in the world. Since then, crops of urchins with an unprecedented roe content of 26 per cent have been caught off the Eastern Shore. The benefit of this technique is that it not only provides a higher return per pound but also has developed a sustainable activity that is easily transferred to other sea urchin fishing zones around the world.

Sponsored by:
Perley-Robertson, Hill & McDougall