Along the west coast, the ocean floor has been taken over by a population explosion of purple sea urchins, which have wiped out kelp beds and left sea floors barren.
One theory is that because of warming oceans, starfish, natural predators of purple urchins, have died off.
A Bodega Bay research team led by researcher Karl Menard is hoping to stop the spread of purple urchins by making them delicious.
The team is hoping to creating a market for them that will give commercial divers an incentive to gather them in mass, reducing their numbers in the sea, giving the kelp a chance to recover.
Source: NBC Bay Area
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