I also wondered if the recent success of sea otter conservation efforts would be in conflict with abalone restoration. However, there seems to be evidence that, at least in the case of black abalone, abalone thrive in habitats where sea otters have been re-introduced[1]. One proposed mechanism for this is that sea otters prefer to eat sea urchins over abalone[2], and keeping the sea urchin population in check improves the overall health of the kelp forests which abalone need to survive.

[1] https://futureoftheocean.wordpress.com/2015/12/18/sea-otters...

[2] https://www.montereycountyweekly.com/blogs/animal_blog/of-ot...

I think sea otters also play another critical role in California's ecosystem.

Sea urchins eat kelp forests. Sea otters eat sea urchins. Abalone live in kelp forests.

So I think that when sea otters are alive, then there are more kelp forests, which leads to more abalone net...even if sea otters are eating abalone.

The purple sea urchins which are currently destroying California's kelp forests are nearly inedible. They aren't the same urchin species that people eat in sushi. There's very little actual meat under the shell. Sea otters will only eat them when there's nothing else available.

Not nearly inedible, just not commercially practical for the effort versus the amount of meat inside. I prefer their taste over the commercially sold reds, they are sweeter in a wider range of seasons. Purple uni crushed up with soy sauce is the perfect sauce for sheephead sashimi.

Spread this information to any sushi chefs you know. The opportunity to help sustainable fisheries by eating puple urchins into obscurity is huge. It's what our economic system is best at.

By "inedible" I didn't mean that purple urchins taste bad necessarily (acquired taste). It's just that shelling them takes so much work that it's not worth the effort for chefs. There are millions and millions all along the coast; convincing a few people to eat them won't make a dent in the population.

That's what we thought about abalone, dodos, passenger pigeons and buffalo.

Fugu isn't exactly easy to process for eating, but people are willing to pay a LOT of money for the privilege of eating it.

All you need is the right marketing, and purple urchins will be like hen's teeth within 10 years.

Even if there were an increase in demand for the purples you'd still be hard pressed to get them commercially, California has been squeezing the number of licensed commercial boats down to about 100 and the market's flexibility is constrained by that.

Purple Sea urchins are an appreciated "connoisseur" dish in all Southern countries of Europe. They are really, really good in fact, with a fine flavour and soft taste, but only when in season, when they feed on the appropriate algae and when taken from a clean source.