Scientist Trude Borch just before she tasted sea urchin roe, served by entrepreneur Øyvind Jørgensen. (Photo: Bjørn Tore Forberg - Copyright: Nofima)

Sea urchin roe 'like Russian caviar'

A scientist at the food research institute Nofima Mat, the Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research along with food producers, chefs, research colleagues and others were served tasty salty-sweet sea urchin roe by a sea urchin entrepreneur at a recent event intending to show that sea urchin roe is similar to a Norwegian variant of Russian caviar.

At the event organized by “Taste the Coast” Nofima scientist Trude Borch told the entrepreneur Øyvind Jørgensen: “This should definitely be a candidate as a seafood souvenir in the Norwegian tourism market.”

Like Russian caviar

Troms Kråkeboller produces the sea urchins from eggs in order to achieve predictable quality. They produce around 2 million sea urchins per annum, fed with a special feed developed by Nofima.

“In this way we achieve gold standard,” says Jørgensen.

And he adds, “The price of the roe can vary from NOK 500 (EUR 65.7) to NOK 12,000 (EUR 1,572.3) per kg in special cases. These are not meals that are measured in kg. We’re talking about small appetizers that are measured in grams.”

Simple sea urchin trap

When the chefs prepared a table full of seafood delicacies towards the end of last week’s event, they used roe both from farmed and wild sea urchins.

“It’s great that the industry is getting a production facility for sea urchin farming because this can provide stable supplies to buyers in Norway and overseas. However, since such large stocks of wild sea urchins are available, it’s important not to forget that there are alternatives,” says Nofima Scientist Philip James.

He points out that Nofima, in collaboration with private companies and the Norwegian Seafood Research Fund (FHF), has been working to develop a remotely-operated underwater vehicle (ROV) that efficiently harvests wild sea urchins.

There are also low technology alternatives.

“Fisherman can easily make a sea urchin trap consisting of a round trampoline comprising a plastic ring and a tight net. You fasten cod heads or a bouquet of seaweed in the middle of the trap before lowering it down to the seabed on a rope. It’s possible to harvest a full net of sea urchins overnight.”

Conquered Northern Norway

It was during the record warm last week of May at the culinary network ”Taste the Coast”, which until that point had been an organisation for Western Norway, went the whole way and conquered Northern Norway with its distinctive Arctic species right outside the kitchen door.

The arena was Skarven’s Culinary Theatre. Project Manager Alexandra Krage Angell from the Norwegian Seafood Centre and adviser Annbjørg Reiersen from Tromsø invited seafood suppliers, cooks, chefs and four Nofima scientists to a tasty, informative and interesting meeting.

Debut for snow crab

In addition to the forecast of stable sea urchin production from the coming winter, the Director of Vardø Hotell, Tor-Emil Sivertsen, contributed the first samples of Norwegian-captured snow crab. The vessel Arctic Wolf had caught 27 tonnes of snow crab and the cooks participating at Skarven immediately found superb applications for the new arrival in Norwegian waters.

Source: Nofima

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