Growing a New Industry: The Promise of Purple Sea Urchins in Rhode Island & Beyond
Small, spiny, & often overlooked, the Atlantic purple sea urchin (Arbacia punctulata) is quietly emerging as one of the most exciting prospects in New England aquaculture. Native to Rhode Island waters & currently unexploited commercially, this remarkable animal grazes on a wide range of seaweeds & small invertebrates, what marine biologists call omnivorous feeding, & it is precisely this dietary versatility that makes it so valuable to the shellfish farming industry.
Shellfish farms growing oysters & scallops produce delicious, healthy, low-carbon seafood, but raising a market-ready product takes considerable effort. One of the most time-consuming & costly challenges is biofouling, the buildup of algae, barnacles, worms, & other organisms on gear & shellfish surfaces. Ironically, heavy fouling is actually a sign of biologically rich waters, the very conditions that make shellfish farming possible. Managing it, however, is essential: clogged mesh restricts water flow, cutting off the planktonic food supplies that oysters & scallops depend on to grow.
Since 2022, my team at the University of Rhode Island has been working to unlock the potential of purple sea urchins across three interconnected fronts. Our research showed that when integrated directly into oyster bags, purple sea urchins did a remarkable job of keeping both gear & oyster shells clean, so effectively that growers are eager to take this further (Jenkins & Suckling, 2026). Funded by the RI Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC), Rhode Island Sea Grant, & a USDA National Needs Fellowship, we are now running optimized farm trials to refine stocking densities, timing, and methods to make this approach practical at production scale.
Of course, integrating sea urchins into farms at scale requires a reliable & responsibly sourced supply of animals. That’s why we have been working to establish a dedicated hatchery for purple sea urchins in Rhode Island. Drawing on more than 20 years of sea urchin hatchery experience across nine species & multiple continents, my team has successfully closed the life cycle loop for the Axtlantic purple sea urchin, producing larvae, settling them, & rearing juveniles through to deployment, & we are continuing to refine & optimize these methods each year, work that has been ongoing since 2025.
The third piece of the puzzle is developing responsible management frameworks. In recent years, my team have been working closely with the Rhode Island Division of Marine Fisheries & Rhode Island Sea Grant extension staff. We are establishing fisheries management & biosecurity practices to ensure that any wild collection of purple sea urchins is sustainable & that farmed animals pose no biosecurity risk to native populations.
This work doesn’t stop at Rhode Island’s borders. Building on over two decades of experience working with sea urchin industries across the United States & Europe, I am collaborating with growers in other states to help them experimentally adapt & apply these practices more broadly, contributing to what could become a thriving new aquaculture sector along the Northeast coast.
If you are interested in purple sea urchin aquaculture then please reach out to us so we can keep you updated on more news and resources for growers interested in using these approaches.
Our paper on this open-access:
Jenkins, C, Suckling, CC (2026). Integrating grazing purple sea urchins (Arbacia punctulata) with eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) can reduce biofouling. Journal of Shellfish Research. 45: 311-319.
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