On Ko Adang I had seen local people opening sea urchins and collecting the inside of the nice and aboundant sea dwellers.

In Marseille/Cassis (South France) they are a delicacy in springtime and collecting is highly regulated and the sea is cold and rough.

Around Ko Leepae the water is warm and I could collect them while snorkeling. Anybody knows wich ones in the Andaman sea/gulf of Thailand taste mouth-watering ? Long vs.short spikes, black vs. black and white ?

In the Caribbean, sea urchin, or sea eggs as they are called is a delicacy. They used to be very abundant but are now scarce due to over harvesting. The govt of Barbados implemented a close season to allow them to multiply but they are still rare and as a result, very expensive.

The ones they eat there have white spikes. They don't eat the black ones. Check with the locals and see which ones they eat.

The locals and I eat the black spiked ones here in Okinawa. Haven't seen the white one. \

Regards, BD

Ive tried the black spiked ones in N.Z.

The Maori love them and call them Kinna, cant say I enjoyed them too much.

MM

Sea urchin, "Uni", is my favourite sushi.

Its yummy.

A few years ago I was on a dive trip not far out of Pattaya. The bottom was covered with urchins. They all looked the same to me so I don't know about black or white. I was teasing the boat captain that I finally had found something the Thais wouldn't eat. He quickly corrected me and told me they were delicious. You'd sure need some method to collect them because dive gloves won't protect you. If they are valuable, someone sure missed a great opportunity to make some money.

They're expensive but disgusting- I've never liked them.

Used to live in Maine (NE USA). The state is economically in trouble with manufacturing moving overseas.

About 10 years ago (+-) the market for sea urchin was discovered. Cold waters, lots of urchin, for the Japanese. People started diving, and making, $1,000 a day. Lots of nonqualified divers started, and they started to have accidents, and fatalities.

Now, not so many urchins, fairly fished out, and heavily regulated.

It was good uni though!! yum yum!

Thanks for the answers. I will collect and try some in DEC 06 .

And to be correct I haven't seen white urchins but urchins with short black and white spikes.

This is what the white sea eggs (urchins) in Barbados look like.