On Tuesday January 13th at 7:00 p.m. Michael Ulrich from the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife will give a free public lecture on sea cucumbers and urchins as part of the Orcas Island Marine Lecture Series.

Many people are familiar with salmon and halibut fisheries, but few people know about Washington’s relatively new sea urchin and sea cucumber fisheries, which began in the early 1970’s and 1980’s. These are unique fisheries in that divers hand harvest the organisms, practically eliminating the by-catch associated with other fisheries. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s cucumber and urchin market prices increased and the fisheries experienced a ten-fold increase in harvest. Since then current harvest levels have been reduced to maintain the long-term sustainability of the fisheries. This is a good thing, believes Joe Gaydos, Regional Director of the SeaDoc Society who says, “economically cucumbers and urchins are important fisheries, but if we fish like there’s no tomorrow, that’s what we can expect.”

The long, warty California sea cucumbers and the green and red urchins are related to sea stars and like sea stars, have a 5-sided symmetry. Cucumbers can live for 5 to 10 years but a recent study showed that red urchins can live to be well over 100 years old. As you can imagine the management of these two fisheries must reflect the dramatically different life expectancies. Once harvested, the five linear muscles of the sea cucumber are stripped and dried for sale. Similarly, the roe or gonads of harvested urchins are extracted and sold. Very few people in Washington eat cucumbers or urchins; most of the harvest is sent to Asia where they are considered a delicacy.

The program begins at 7:00 p.m. at the Camp Orkila Marine Salmon Center. The lecture is free. Please park in Camp Orkila’s upper parking lot. Shuttle service from the parking lot to the talk is available before and after the lecture.

The 7th Annual Marine Science Lecture Series is presented by program partners the SeaDoc Society and YMCA Camp Orkila. It has been made possible through generous sponsorship by Tom Averna Deer Harbor Charters, Barbara Brown, The Gould Family Foundation and co-sponsorship by Shearwater Kayaks and Jim and Kathy Youngren.