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INTRODUCTION

Spiines2 is a project to investigate the reasons behind the reduction in roe quality and research ways to increase the quality whilst helping to maintain a suitable sea urchin population.

Sea urchin roe is a luxury food product. However the wild stocks of edible urchins are now seriously depleted because of over fishing. Wild harvested sea urchins now typically only have low roe content and are of a very poor or variable roe colour. This acts to devalue the product. The biological basis for culture of sea urchins has been established but the developing industry is now meeting particular constraints. These are:

• The lack of diets which improve roe colour, while maintaining the other quantity and consistency parameters demanded by the market (flavour, texture, quantity).
  Roe colour is a critical factor in the commercial product; poor or variable gonad colour at point of sale has a detrimental effect on the value in all species. A diet is required that can be used by three separate sectors: to use to raise sea urchins in monoculture from juveniles to market size, for use as a finishing diet to perfect roe quality in urchins from polyculture systems, for use in enhancing the roe of fished urchins with un-marketable roe content. The work packages will investigate the pigment (carotenoid) content of sea urchin roes to facilitate the design of sea urchin diets containing pigments from natural sources (eg microalgae). The diets will be species specific and improve roe content and colour.



• The lack of ‘grow out technology’ to reduce time to market. The current demand of sea urchin roe means there is some pressure to mature the hatchery urchins as quickly as possible. We are aiming to find a viable option to encourage growth without detrimentally affecting the roe quality.

While helping fulfil the aims of the ‘Strategy for the Sustainable Development of European Aquaculture’ this research will also help relieve the pressure on the remaining, vulnerable wild urchin populations. The research will have a positive impact on other sectors; e.g. seafood retailers, animal-food manufacturers, food processing and transport sectors, and will be of socio-economic benefit to rural maritime communities dependent on aquaculture.