Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: rain Stuff, Lauren voc obam here. Whoever it was that
Speaker 1: first came upon the sharp, spiny body of a sea
Speaker 1: urchin and said, Hey, let's crack this bad boy open
Speaker 1: and see if the orange goo inside tastes good. Deserves
Speaker 1: a gold medal in bravery and sheer determination. The sea
Speaker 1: urchin is a small, spiny sea creature called a kindaderm.
Speaker 1: Sea urchins, along with all members of the Philomicina dermata,
Speaker 1: are found only in the ocean, a particularly unusual quality
Speaker 1: as a large number of aquatic animals tend to take
Speaker 1: up residents in lakes and streams as well. Sea urchins
Speaker 1: most often can be found in shallow water and even
Speaker 1: carpet the sea floor in some areas. Commercial sea urchin
Speaker 1: fishing began in Japan soon after World War Two, before
Speaker 1: spreading to the entire Pacific rim by the nineteen seventies,
Speaker 1: and within two more decades the practice would spread to
Speaker 1: the Atlantic region. We spoke with Bob Stenic, professor of oceanography,
Speaker 1: marine biology, and marine policy at the University of Maine.
Speaker 1: He said the global peak and sea urchin harvests occurred
Speaker 1: around and has declined ever since. In many places, it's
Speaker 1: a poster child example of over fishing. In the year
Speaker 1: two thousand, twenty million pounds that's about nine million kilos
Speaker 1: of sea urchins were harvested in California and sold to
Speaker 1: markets in Japan. But if you've never tried it, you
Speaker 1: might be curious about what all the fuss is about.
Speaker 1: We also spoke with David Glass, accomplished dessert chef, self
Speaker 1: described sea urchin fanatic and father to the author of
Speaker 1: today's episode. He has a few choice words, but it
Speaker 1: comes to consuming these bizarre little creatures. Quote the brilliant
Speaker 1: orange color, slightly fermented, aroma, and solidity, suggesting a catastrophic
Speaker 1: explosion of flavor in your mouth. Proceed your first taste.
Speaker 1: That first taste is sticky, oceanic, sweet and fermented, and
Speaker 1: everything else that makes up the taste, known as umami.
Speaker 1: Poetry starts to flood your brain. In Layman's terms, see
Speaker 1: chin called uni in Japanese, tastes weird but fine. It's gooey, runny, funky, savory,
Speaker 1: but with a hint of sweet and salt, with a
Speaker 1: texture somewhere between an egg yolk and jello. It is
Speaker 1: a very very unusual taste, but when prepared right provocative
Speaker 1: after humans, The sea urchin's second biggest predator is one
Speaker 1: of its own fellow aquinoderm that we're all familiar with,
Speaker 1: the starfish. If you think starfish are beautiful, get ready
Speaker 1: to be kind of horrified with this graphic nugget. The
Speaker 1: starfish will wrap itself around the sea urchin, then evert
Speaker 1: their stomach out of their body onto the sea urchin
Speaker 1: in order to dissolve the shell with their gastric juices
Speaker 1: and eventually get to the tasty flesh within. And sea
Speaker 1: urchin's own eating habits are just as fascinating. It has
Speaker 1: a circle of five sharp teeth on the bottom of
Speaker 1: its body and yes, this looks like something out of
Speaker 1: Stranger Things that it uses to scrape algae and collect
Speaker 1: kelp off of the rocks it lives on, and can
Speaker 1: even use them to burrow into the rocks for a
Speaker 1: better hold on the ocean floor or to make itself
Speaker 1: a little hideaway. But they're not vegetarians. They'll eat other
Speaker 1: animals or each other if they get the chance. Scientists
Speaker 1: also believe that some species of sea urchins don't age,
Speaker 1: meaning they don't die unless they're killed by something, and
Speaker 1: they don't lose the capacity to reproduce. Stenic said, a
Speaker 1: sea urchin's body plan is pretty unique. One could say
Speaker 1: it's a hollow limestone sphere made out of numerous hexagonal plates,
Speaker 1: sort of like a geodisc dome, with spines that make
Speaker 1: it look like a pincushion. They move slowly using numerous
Speaker 1: small tubular section devices called tube feet. These tube feet
Speaker 1: are strong muscles the protrude from the ends of the spines,
Speaker 1: which they can attach to rocks or coral, allowing them
Speaker 1: to move over the sea floor and those little spines.
Speaker 1: Think of them as sharp feet that are just achin
Speaker 1: to pierce your skin. While it's certainly not pleasant, Stenic
Speaker 1: assures that stepping on a sea urchin is not deadly,
Speaker 1: and he has to date never heard of a fatal
Speaker 1: case to an accidental trampling. Still, if you're worried about
Speaker 1: stepping on one of these guys, well maybe wear rubber
Speaker 1: soled shoes and try not to prick on the feet
Speaker 1: by one of these spines can cause damage to the
Speaker 1: skin and sometimes even the bone inside a few species.
Speaker 1: Spines can be venomous, but not so much that it
Speaker 1: would be fatal to humans. The worst that can happen
Speaker 1: is a potential allergic reaction or further injury from trying
Speaker 1: to remove the spine. Instead of tugging at it, use vinegar,
Speaker 1: which will dissolve the spine and leave behind only the
Speaker 1: distant memory of that time that you stepped on a
Speaker 1: living pin cushion. So, whether you accidentally come upon these
Speaker 1: spiny marine creatures on the sea floor via your foot,
Speaker 1: or take a bit of its insides brushed with soy
Speaker 1: sauce over rice, you really have to appreciate the sea
Speaker 1: urchin for its unbroken commitment to staying weird. Today's episode
Speaker 1: was written by Jeremy Glass and produced by Tyler Clang.
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio's How
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. For more in this and lots of other
Speaker 1: weird topics, visit our home planet, how Stuff Works dot com,
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