Raising Tastier Sea Urchins For Foodies And The Environment  Sea
urchins are considered a culinary delicacy, but demand can't
keep up wit...   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 to make them taste better. Now, he
wants to take his tasty urchins out of his farm and into
restaurants across the country.   "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."  Watts started his sea urchin farm nearly two decades
ago as a sustainable solution to a big problem: Sea urchins have
been so overharvested that, in some areas, their numbers will
never recover. For instance, during the heyday, in the
mid-1990s, Maine fishermen harvested about 50 million tons of
sea urchins each year. These days, 90 percent of the original
urchin population off the coast of Maine has permanently
disappeared, Watts says.  A few floors above his