Shellfish gatherers say the sea urchins are plentiful, but restaurateurs deny it: what's happening to the Costa Brava's flagship seafood?

PalafrugellIt's a winter Friday, and in the Empordanet region, signs indicating it's garoinada season are everywhere, especially at the roundabouts leading into towns. In Palafrugell, on market Saturday, they only have one stall. They've put up a sign saying they're from Palamós, that they sell them for 21 euros per kilo (between twelve and twenty depending on the weight), and the curious thing is that they've spelled their name with extreme correctness. garoínasThey are small, as the restorers in the area tell me, smaller in diameter than usual in other years (they must be 5 cm), but I cannot check if they are empty or full because they are closed, of course.

And here begins the debate about sea urchins (as they are also known in the Empordà region). The harsh winter storms, the summer heat, and various pathogens could explain why the urchins are half empty inside, but restaurant owners don't know this when they buy them; they pay market price: €1.05 each. If they later open them and find them empty or nearly empty, there's nothing they can do, because the shellfish gatherer has done their job. And they've done it properly, because they must have a license, they've had to go through the fishermen's association (the guild certifies the catch and takes a percentage of the sale, as with all fish and shellfish), and they've respected the six-month closed season for this shellfish. In the restaurant, each garoina can be sold for 2.50 euros, but if, when they have opened them, they have seen them empty, they cannot serve them, as assured by some restaurateurs of a restaurant in Palafrugell who prefer to remain anonymous, and who, in addition, point out that having it on the menu also means receiving inspections, a common purchase.

On the Costa Brava, it's estimated that one million sea urchins are eaten each season, from October to the end of March. This is according to Martí Sabrià, who launched the campaign in 1992 when he was director of the Palafrugell Tourism Board; he is now retired. "We needed an incentive for people to come to the area in winter, and I thought of linking a gastronomic product with a town [Palafrugell] to create a campaign, and thus bring people to the restaurants and the towns," Sabrià recalls. Before launching the campaign, he conducted studies, and scientists confirmed that there were 32 million sea urchins on the Costa Brava, which live an average of seven years. "We also came to the conclusion that the food industry was the biggest spender, much more than the ones we, as a campaign, would use," he says, adding that, a few years after launching the initiative, they themselves asked the Generalitat to implement a ban that would last six months, and that is what has been done until now.

The winter hit

The fact is that from 1992 until this year, they have held thirty-two editions, all with great success; at least with the success with which it all began: that there was tourism even in winter. But "it's true that this year the storms have caused the sea urchins to be smaller and some, emptier," says Sabrià. This is because the storms have caused the urchins to detach from the rocks and fall to the bottom, where they find less food. However, Sabrià insists that the sea urchins are not small or empty everywhere. "I have messages from acquaintances who send me photos of themselves eating at different restaurants all along the Costa Brava where the urchins are large and full; therefore, it's not the general trend," Sabrià points out.

For their part, Luis Jiménez, shellfish gatherer, licensed to fish for sea urchins in Tossa and Lloret de MarHe explains that he's fishing normally despite the harsh winter, and that some catches have been less full, but overall, good. It's an intense season for sea urchin fishing, which he does free-diving, because that's how it has to be done, since the Catalan government doesn't allow fishing with scuba gear. In fact, this is where one of the great debates surrounding sea urchin fishing originates, because perhaps if the shellfish gatherers could fish with scuba gear, they could dive deeper, and then the urchins they would collect would be larger, and probably fuller. We'll never know, because it's prohibited. The only thing that is known is that there are twenty-seven licensed shellfish gatherers on the Costa Brava, and therefore twenty-seven families who make a living from sea urchin fishing for six months. Some believe they live very well because of the high price they get for the urchins, but others remind them that they can only fish for six months a year.

Meanwhile, in At the Blanes Center for Advanced Studies (CEAB-CSIC), researcher Jordi Boada agrees that this year local impacts (illegal fishing and recurrent shellfish harvesting) have compounded regional impacts, such as storms, heat waves, and the mass mortality of sea urchins associated with pathogens. All these factors together, especially the pathogens, popularly known as "sea urchin baldness" because the shellfish lose their spines, could explain why they are smaller and appear half-empty, but, as a scientist, he cannot say for sure. "We haven't yet assessed the effects of the January storms, but we do know that the high summer temperatures caused the death of many sea urchins," says Boada, who is a member of the sea urchin fisheries commission. In summary, two certainties, Boada continues: currently "sea urchin fishing is an important economic activity on the Costa Brava" and "from Sant Feliu de Guíxols to Blanes, an infestation was detected in the summer, which resulted in massive mortality."

Finally, in the Generalitat of Catalonia, Lucía Martínez, head of the Fisheries Management service, reports This year, the number of sea urchins harvested has decreased, at least according to data collected up to the end of February from local fishermen's associations. Specifically, since the season began in October, 14,722 kilos have been harvested, compared to 17,908 kilos at this time last year, and 20,052 kilos the year before that (2023-2024 season). Even during the pandemic, more sea urchins were consumed than this year. In other words, this season, up to the end of February, more than 294,000 sea urchins have been harvested, while last season the figure was over 358,160. This discrepancy partially explains the differing opinions among consumers, shellfish gatherers, and restaurant owners. There are fewer urchins. And when there are some, according to some, they are less full and smaller.

10 interesting facts about hedgehogs

According to researcher Jordi F. Pagès, from the Blanes Centre for Advanced Studies

• It has been native to our seas for thousands of years; it is not a recently imported species.
• The interior appearance is radial, with five arms, as it is popularly said, and resembles starfish, with which they are related because they are part of the same order, the echinoderms.
• When the gonads (the edible inner flesh) are more reddish in color, they are sea urchins; if they are more yellowish, they are males. Both are eaten, but some people prefer the females because they have a more intense flavor.
• Sea urchins reproduce through external fertilization. The female releases eggs and the male releases sperm, forming zygotes, which then hatch into larvae that spend time in the plankton until they settle on the seabed (usually rocky bottoms with many holes, or Posidonia meadows) and grow there until they metamorphose into a small sea urchin.
• It is a primarily herbivorous species, and a rather voracious one at that. In rocky environments, where algae are abundant, if its populations increase excessively, they can leave the rocks completely bare of soft algae, leaving only encrusting (or limestone) algae.