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Sea urchins were once considered parasites according to one of the older divers I spoke with when I began harvesting them. They were like a plague to kelp harvesters since they were able to wipe out whole beds of kelp in a very short period of time. Divers were sent down to destroy urchins and that was accomplished by crushing them. But the effect was the exact opposite. When the urchins were crushed the eggs were released in a greater abundance and they multiplied that much faster also devastating the kelp fields that much faster.

Somehow someone found out that certain cultures of people liked to eat sea urchins and the Japanese considered urchins called uni in Japanese an aphrodisiac.Many of these folks had been eating sea urchins for years.

I began sea urchin diving and urchin diving was relatively new in the US at the time but the Japanese had been harvesting urchins for many years.

When we first began harvesting urchins we had to learn to find and pick the best product which was an urchin that had a bright yellow roe. The urchins have to be thinned out in some areas so they have enough food to provide the bright yellow roe.The pay was around 20 to 30 cents a pound for a quality product. A good diver could pick 2000 pounds a day at that time at the channel islands and 1000 pounds off the southern coast of California.

There was no liscense needed accept for the usual fishing liscense and an invertabrae permit which was free. Five years later you could not obtain a liscense to harvest urchins because the price had jumped to $2.20 cents a pound for urchins. Divers were flocking to dive sea urchins.

There was no job comparable to diving sea urchins. A diver was connected to the boat with a hose or hookah which was fed air from a compressor on the vessel. A metal ring with a net attached on one end and a tire tube designed to float the net were used to collect the urchins.

The bags for collecting sea urchins could weigh anywhere from 300 pounds and up to a safe range under 1000 pounds on small fishing vessels, depending upon the boats winch and rigging setup.

 Their is undoubtedly no more spectacular  place to dive on earth as the channel islands off the California Coast. The scenery is absolutey phenomenal.