Meet the Company Creating Sushi that Heals the Ocean

When the 2011 tsunami struck Japan, the topside damage was easy to see: more than 400,000 homes were destroyed, and over 23,000 people died or went missing. Its underwater devastation took longer to spot. Just as the wave battered human neighborhoods, it blasted apart marine communities. Larger species moved out like refugees and, with few predators left, purple urchins proliferated. They wiped out kelp beds and, with them, hope of large fish returning and a powerful carbon sink... ...Enter Urchinomics, Takeda’s urchin ranching company, which hires commercial divers to clear purple urchin barrens. Many of these wild-caught urchins are then raised in specially designed tanks until their roe is large enough to sell to restaurants. The business’ first commercial cultivation facility came online in Japan this year, where several ventures have served its uni. A third party dive nonprofit, Mobile Sea Otters, will monitor the sites near the ranch to gauge the restoration impact...