[en] Today, most world sea urchins fisheries have to deal with overexploitation or yields drop problems. Better management of exploited field populations and/or aquaculture are more and more considered as necessities to sustain sea urchins' production in the near future. In this context, we evaluate here the potentials of land-based closed cycle echiniculture.
A long-term experiment with the edible violet sea urchin (Paracentrotus lividus) has been done at a pilot scale in France. The process used (see figure here below) allows total independence against natural resources, since the whole biological cycle of the echinoids is under control (closed cycle echiniculture) and all activities are performed on land. Also, a method has been set up to gain control over the reproductive cycle of these animals and to produce marketable individuals all year long.
Overall conclusions of this experiment reveal great potentials, but also point out some pitfalls that remains to be eliminated before pretending for profitability. The most critical pitfalls identified are (1) poor control of extremely variable growth rates due to intraspecific competition, (2) poor control on inorganic carbon in closed or semi-closed systems due to a high demand in carbonates for skelettogenesis and (3) needs for increased quality of gonads (the edible part of the urchins) thanks to a specific artificial diet that remains to be formulated.
One important aspect comes to light: land- based closed cycle echiniculture should have a very low impact on other mariculture or touristic activities that usually compete strongly for space on the coastline in many places. This should be a major advantage considering tomorrow's aquaculture diversification.
