Sea urchins are considered a culinary delicacy in many parts of the world, including Japan and the United States. The market for this "foie gras of the sea" is growing rapidly — so fast that supply can't keep up with demand.
But a scientist in Birmingham, Ala., says he's found a solution: He's built a sea urchin farm in his lab and has even developed a food for them to make them taste better. Now, he wants to take his tasty urchins out of his farm and into restaurants across the country.
Deep in a basement at the , biology professor opens a door into a large, wet room that smells — well, fishy. Inside, hundreds of spiny sea urchins sit in large blue tanks. Each urchin lives in a small cage that's about 3 inches high with different colored tags attached. The tags detail the different diets that Watts and his team feed these sea creatures. As I look into one of the cages, I see an urchin using its feet, which look like tiny tubes, to eat something that resembles spaghetti.
"They're slow eaters," Watts says. "And they'll start at one end and eat it much like a rabbit might eat a carrot, from one end all the way to the other."
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