The United States’ first ever Purple Sea Urchin Festival* took place on the Mendocino Coast recently. Fort Bragg, the largest city on the Mendocino Coast, is one of the biggest producers of sea urchin in California, and with the overabundance of the urchins in the waters these past few years, there is no better time to celebrate this sea delicacy.

Why a focus on urchin now? And why purple urchin? The chefs, educators, and residents of this area are deeply passionate about the interwoven ecological web of the beautiful and mysterious ocean that makes up the landscape of their daily lives on the Mendocino Coast. Abalone has long been a unique part of Mendocino – with local campfire cooking, seasonal tourism boosts, and signature festivals celebrating it as a delicacy. With the collapse of the sea star population, the exponential growth of purple urchin, and the subsequent decimation of the abalone population, residents are constantly looking for eco-friendly ways to resolve these intertwined issues and reduce the impact of this invasive species.

“The current circumstances have given us an opportunity to experience uni from these less-popular but equally-tasty purples,” states Cally Dym, 5th generation owner of Little River Inn. “Fort Bragg has long been a major producer of sea urchin in the United States – but virtually all of the product has been shipped out of the area, and until recently not a single restaurant offered uni on their menu. With a growing understanding of local food sheds and local food webs, we think now is the perfect time to ‘Taste the Place’ and expand our understanding of the purple sea urchin.”

During the three-day festival, some of the most beloved and iconic local hotels and restaurants along the coast, including The Harbor House Inn, Little River Inn, Noyo Harbor Inn, Glendeven Inn & Lodge, The Inn at The Cobbler’s Walk, Elk Cove Inn, Princess Seafood Market & Deli and Izakaya Gama in Point Arena, served urchin-focused menus and specials. Select inns and hotels also offered deals on lodging and other services.

The weekend also had a strong educational component, with the Mendocino Area Parks Association, Watermen’s Alliance, Noyo Science Center and Freedive Shop providing instructional demos and hands-on experiences. Urchinomics,  a restorative seafood company, played a part in the festival by supplying select restaurant partners with purple urchin (‘uni’). Urchinomics is a company dedicated to restoring kelp forests by removing overgrazing barren sea urchins, feeding them on land, and selling them on to distributors and restaurants.

Examples of the weekend’s Urchin tasting activities include:

• Outdoor demo and 5-course purple urchin tasting menu presented by Urchinomics and Chef Matthew Kammerer at Michelin-starred The Harbor House Inn.
• Uni demo and educational talk at Van Damme State Beach; sample fresh uni on the beach. Josh Russo from the Waterman’s Alliance and international free dive competitor Greg Fonts of The Freedive Shop demonstrate how to open and clean urchin. Participants  learn how to harvest urchin, the impact purple urchin has on other fisheries and innovative solutions to the problem.
• Sake Seminar at Little River Inn. Sake expert Kerry Tamura of World Sake Imports walks attendees through the best sakes from seven different Japanese prefectures, highlighting the features of the terroir in the glass. Guests also learn about urchin while sampling uni snacks.

“As a chef in today’s world, it is my job to choose more sustainable ingredients and showcase them to the public,” states Matthew Kammerer, Executive Chef at Harbor House Inn. “Chefs have more of a role in today’s food scene, where education about products, including why and how to use them can help shape the public’s dining perspective and have a positive outcome on future generations. Purple sea urchin has been on our menu since day one.  We are proud to serve all local products but this one has extra meaning for us. Not just its flavor, but to help remove some urchin numbers from the ecosystem that is on the verge of collapsing.”

Continues Dym, “Urchin is delicious and that in itself is a reason to create an urchin festival. What fascinates me is the role purple urchin plays in the ecosystem of the Northwest Pacific Ocean and telling that story to festival goers.”