While I was still a grad student, Dr. Kenneth Chew (University of Washington, School of Fisheries) told me that the problem with mariculture in the US was that we were not a hungry country. What Dr. Gross' Aquaculture installment teaches is that there are many kinds of hunger, and a culture model will work in the US if we find the right appetites. Doug's brilliant approach to marine aquaponics and environmental improvement addressed two such appetites. Perhaps others can capitalize on other hungers, like the desire to reduce methane production from cattle by selling aquaponic marine algae as a feed supplement, or reduce particulate food "pollution" around fish sea cages by surrounding them by long-line shellfish culture. This video is not just inspiring, it shows the way.
Thank you for the praise. We certainly are a hungry country for seafood and other factors as you mentioned. Are we willing to pay for the real cost of production and not ignore the environmental and social implications of paying for the cheapest products grown in suboptimal conditions.
A very interesting topic. I've eaten plenty of Sea Urchin and that was interesting to hear about the imbalance. If you added seaweed to those reefs, does that help or are those areas too big
This is so cool! First time I've seen such a creative solution to the Purple Sea Urchin Problem, excited to hopefully try some harvested/fattened Purple Sea Urchin in the future! :)
Hi, thank you for your research and your product. You explained how sea urchins have destroyed reefs. Watching your video I have the impression you are somehow addressing that problem? Please educate me, what you are doing is amazing aquaculture.
We are all doing our part. We are working with the CA Sea Urchin Commission, processors and divers to look for other potential uses of urchin byproducts, Developing a CA brand, and in the fall we start a new project looking at urchin diets and trying to understand and manipulate uni production during the off season. Other groups are harvesting urchins while other looking at kelp reforestation. We are also working on abalone conservation where we have some cool videos describing that effort.
Interesting that while talking about creating value by feeding purple sea urchins, he showed a red sea urchin (the more trad wild harvested species, as the end result.
