USES OF SEA URCHINS 23 



females in the market. If the animals are in water too deep to be taken 

 by hand, the fishermen dive and grasp the urchin with a "canna", a 

 reed pole with a split end. Paracentrotus is eaten in other places in Italy 

 and also in Sicily. In modern Greece, sea urchins are eaten raw or 

 cooked with rice. They are also eaten in Portugal and in South Ame- 

 rica, Loxechinus albus in southern Chili (Bernasconi, 1947). 



In France, Paracentrotus lividus is commonly used as food along the 

 Mediterranean, and this species but not the large Echinus esculentus is 

 eaten on the north coast (RoscofT) and is also sent to Paris, where 

 one obtains them at oyster bars. Over a million sea urchins a year 

 are brought into the fish markets of Marseilles, and sold (before 1904) 

 for 20,000 francs (Bronn's Thier-Reich, p. 1307). One also dips bread 

 into them" a la maniere des oeufs — a lamouillette" (DujardinetHupe, 

 1862, p. 458); this is called une oursinade. When cooked they are said 

 to taste like crayfish (ecrevisse). The early French writers, Belon (1553) 

 and Rondelet (1554) called the edible sea urchins doulcins or doussins 

 and the non-edible ones rascasses (a very bony fish, Scorpaena, used 

 chiefly in making bouillabaisse). 



In England to-day sea urchins are not commonly eaten. Pennant in 

 1777, p. 68, said they "are eaten by the poor in many parts of England 

 and by the better sort abroad." According to several present-day 

 British biologists, they are not eaten at the marine stations. 



They are not usually eaten by Americans. On the Pacific Coast, at 

 Pacific Grove, both Strongylocentrotus franciscanus and S. purpuratus are 

 eaten, mostly by the Italian and other immigrants. However, some 

 Americans have found "the gonads o{ S. franciscanus, eaten a ITtalienne 

 (raw) with French bread, very good — extremely rich, and possibly 

 more subtle than caviar. If it were not for the fact that the race is 

 already being depleted by the appreciative Italians, urchins could be 

 highly recommended as a table delicacy" (Ricketts and Calvin, 1948, 

 p. 58). Some years ago, the Chinese at Pacific Grove sent quantities 

 of sea urchins to China to be used as food (Kellogg, 1899). S. francis- 

 canus is eaten by the Indians and Greeks in British Columbia. S. droba- 

 chiensis is eaten by the inhabitants of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska. 

 Even in New York City, one finds sea urchins for sale in the markets 

 and on the streets of Greenwich Village, where they are bought and 

 eaten mainly by Italians; they cost about five cents apiece. They are 

 also served in a few restaurants in New York. These are S. drobachiensis, 

 and come from the northern waters around Rhode Island, Boston, 

 and Maine. Arbacia punctulata and A. lixula are not usually eaten. 



In many tropical countries, sea urchin gonads are commonly eaten, 



