No sea egg season this year, Maritime Affairs Minister confirms

Barbadians who enjoy the taste of sea eggs will have to wait a little longer before they can enjoy the delicacy again as there will be no open season for harvesting them this year, Maritime Affairs and Blue Economy Minister Kirk Humphrey said Friday.

The sea urchins, from whose roe the delicacy is derived, are in extremely short supply all over the island, prompting an investigation by the authorities, he told reporters.

He said: “Every single year around June and July, we send divers out to survey all the coasts; north, south, east and west, and they report on the maturity and amount of sea eggs they see, and that determines whether we will have an open season.

“This year has been one of the lowest on record based on what we have seen. In many instances, the divers saw no sea eggs at all, and the ones they did see were very immature, so we could not possibly open the season this year.”

Humphrey said his ministry and the Coastal Zone Management Unit (CZMU) will be carrying out investigations to determine what is causing the decline in the sea urchin population.

“It seems as though there is a seaweed the urchins used to feed on that is no longer available, so we are determining whether that can be replaced or whether there are nutrients in the water that were not there before,” said the minister. “These investigations will be important in the long term, and once this issue is settled, we may have a more bountiful supply again.”

He warned that harvesting the delicacy now that the season has been declared closed is illegal, referring to a video circulating on social media that suggested a good supply of sea eggs available along the east coast.

Humphrey said: “There is a video going around on social media showing people in Consett Bay catching and selling sea eggs. However, that video is about four years old and started circulating around the time I first said there would be no sea egg season, so it is someone up to mischief sending that out to suggest people are breaking the law.

“But I assure you, anyone caught harvesting or selling sea eggs at this time will be prosecuted and bear the full weight of the law.” (DH)