Sea urchins found to grow rapidly when raised with Shimaguwa leaves, and the Urasoe Ginowan Fishery Cooperative is looking to capitalize
Sea urchins raised with Shimaguwa leaves– July 5, at Makiminato Fishing Port in Urasoe
July 13 2021 Ryukyu Shimpo
Urasoe – A special project to raise sea urchins on land using leaves from the shimaguwa, an island mulberry tree specially raised in the city, is underway at Makiminato Fishing Port in Urasoe. On July 5, some of these were opened as a test, and there were some gonads harvested that weighed over 25 grams. Those involved in the raising of the sea urchins including people from the Urasoe Ginowan Fishery Cooperative and from Urasoe and Ginowan cities are confident that the project is, “the first step towards commercialization.” Sea urchin, a delicacy, may be close to being established as a new seafood product for Urasoe and Ginowan.
The sea urchin farming project is part of the “fishery revitalization projects,” a tag team effort started in July, 2020 by Urasoe and Ginowan cities. Both have received grant money from Japan’s Fisheries Agency, and are undertaking the sea urchin farming project under the guidance of Urasoe Ginowan Fishery Cooperative member Koji Muto, 60.
The sea urchins that were raised are and Okinawan breed called shirahigeuni, and the project purchased around 500 baby sea urchins from the Okinawa Fishery Center in Motobu. The food for the sea urchins were leaves from the shimaguwa tree, a specialty from Urasoe, and sea grapes raised in the harbor. Usually, sea urchins are fed seaweeds like konbu and wakame, however according to Urasoe, an experiment conducted by Okinawa Prefecture showed that giving them plants grown on land such as the mulberry leaves caused the sea urchins to grow larger than normal. With that, they decided to feed the sea urchins leaves from the shimaguwa collected from all over the city.
At first, the baby sea urchins purchased from Okinawa Prefecture were around one centimeter in size, but in around nine months they had grown to around eight centimeters.
Muto, who works on growing the sea grapes, commented, “They grow fast when you feed them the mulberry leaves. At first, we fed them sugarcane, but here was no change. I want to keep working to turn this trial into an industry.”
Muto is planning on having a test sale of the sea urchins for the Urasoe City Hall employees on July 16.
(English translation by T&CT and Sam Grieb)
Koji Muto with fishery cooperative members and representatives from Urasoe and Ginowan showing off the sea urchins raised using island mulberry leaves – July 5, at Makiminato Fishing Port in Urasoe
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