As many of you may know, there is an on going war in Kāneʻohe Bay, a war against invasive algae species, Kappaphycus alvarezii & Eucheuma spp. While TNC’s Supersucker operation is designed to remove the algae in large sums, it is nearly impossible for the crew to remove every piece of algae; a detrimental feat since these two algae species reproduce by fragmentation.

Luckily, over the past years, it was discovered that a native species of sea urchin loves to munch on this smothering algae. Tripneustes gratilla, or collector urchins, are outplanted in areas after the Supersucker has came through and removed the algae to a level in which these “tiny cows of the reef” can come and graze away, just as cows do in pastures of grass. This keeps the algae at a maintainable level, a level to which it wonʻt grow back at an unmanageable rate.

These little treasures are grown from wild collected gametes at the Anuenue Fishery Research Center (AFRC), a state run facility operated by the Division of Aquatic Resources, where they are grown to about the size of a dime before taken and released on patch reefs in Kāneʻohe Bay. Once a week, a group of TNC staff members volunteers at the urchin hatchery, sorting the toddler urchins by size and cleaning the urchin condos they live in.