During the heyday, Maine urchin fishermen harvested more than 40 million pounds of the spiny creatures a year. A move is now under way to jumpstart the industry, which has fallen on hard times and is just a skeleton of its former self.
At a processing plant in Portland last week, a sea urchin is split open to reveal the bright orange roe. During the peak years of the mid-1990s, the harvest topped 30 million pounds a year for three years in a row, with a peak of 42 million pounds. By 2010, the harvest had dwindled to just 2.6 million pounds, the smallest yield since 1987.
A panel made up of scientists, urchin harvesters and regulators has begun discussions on developing a fishery management plan that would look at how best to maximize the value of the fishery while also protecting the resource.
Nobody expects the industry to return to the days of the 1990s, when it employed thousands of people who harvested and processed the pincushion-looking animals, selling the golden roe to Japan, where it’s a delicacy.
But developing a plan with goals, scientific criteria and a broad regulatory regime could result in a bigger fishery with more jobs, while protecting the urchin population down the road, said Larry Harris, a marine scientist at the University of New Hampshire who is chairman of a panel spearheading the plan. He'd like to see a plan developed by the end of spring and have it go into effect by fall.
“One would love to see greater production, but at the same time it’s important how you do that so it’s sustainable,” Harris said.
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