There is a company called Urchinomics that is catching the purple urchins, then feeding them in a land based environment, then selling them worldwide as high quality uni.[1][2]

The reason this is critical is that purple urchins can effectively starve themselves and go into hibernation with a virtually empty body. This virtually empty body is not desirable for either (a) traditional fisherman or (b) any predators (e.g. even fish that eat urchin know to not eat the urchins that have overgrazed a kelp forest as they know they are empty.

If Urchinomics can get the unit economics to work out such that there is a financial incentive to catch a significant number of these urchin, that could change this situation.

[1] https://www.urchinomics.com/

[2] https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/09/09/756929657/sa...