Wild sea urchins are known as the "soft gold of the seabed". Photo by Jiang Junlin

From 4 to 0 every year, it is the fattest season for sea urchins in the coastal areas of Yangxi. Recently, a large number of sea urchins caught by fishermen in coastal towns and villages in the county have been put on the market, bringing considerable income to fishermen.

It is understood that sea urchin is an invertebrate animal, rich in amino acids, vitamins, etc., with high nutritional value and delicious taste. Known as the "soft gold of the seabed", wild sea urchins are in short supply in the market and currently sell for as much as 540 yuan per kilogram.

A few days ago, fishing boats returned with full loads, and fishermen carried the black and plump sea urchins ashore along the stairs of the pier, and these fresh wild sea urchins were immediately loaded onto trucks and sent to the purchase point for processing.

Wild sea urchins usually inhabit rocks, reefs or seagrasses in the sea, so they can be difficult to catch and require fishermen to dive into the sea to catch them. Fishermen generally have to go out to sea at about 2000 o'clock in the morning, dive into the deep sea to pick up the sea urchin from the stones, generally can pick about 0 catties per day, and the average daily income can reach 0 yuan.

At the sea urchin processing site, workers skillfully pry open the sea urchin shell, dig out the golden sea urchin meat, and then carefully pick out the impurities with tweezers, and wash it with water.

Now is the fattest season for sea urchins, and 7 catties of sea urchins can open about 0-0 catties of sea urchin meat. The cleaned sea urchin meat is bagged and sent to seafood markets and restaurants across the country.

Nanfang Daily reporter He Pengchong

Correspondent Zhan Wenping