Species Use Database

Green sea urchin
Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis

Used for Food and feed, Medicine and hygiene and Conservation Management in Arctic Sea

A. Species

Scientific name: Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis

Common name(s): Green sea urchin

Global IUCN Red List Threat Status:


B. Location of use

Geographic location(s):

  • Arctic Sea

Country/Region: Russia/ Barents Sea


C. Scale of assessment

Scale of assessment: Sub-national / Sub-region / Sub-State

Name/Details of location: Murmansk Region


D. Timescale of use

Start Year: 1980

End Year: 2020


E. Information about the use

How is the wild species sourced?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat, Wild species sourced from the wild but reared/cultivated in a managed site and Wild species born/bred and raised/produced in captivity or through artificial propagation

Type of use: Extractive

Practice of use: Targeted fishing harvesting/exploiting or collecting wild aquatic resources

Lethal or non-lethal: Lethal

Does this use involve take/extraction of: Only parts or products of the organism

Purpose(s) of end use: Food and feed, Medicine and hygiene and Conservation Management

Motivation of use: Largescale commercial exploitation for trade and Population/Area Management

Is this use legal or illegal?: Legal under national law


F. Information about the Users

Which stakeholder(s) does the record primarily focus on?: National / local private sector and International private sector


G. Information about the sustainability of use

Is there evidence that the use is having an impact on the target species?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat, Wild species sourced from the wild but reared/cultivated in a managed site and Wild species born/bred and raised/produced in captivity or through artificial propagation

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an ecological perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered sustainable

Details of assessment carried out: authors opinion based on literature review

Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Authors state: "Considerable success in aquaculture of marine animals including sea urchins living in the Barents Sea was achieved in Norway. Norwegian specialists are developing techniques for gonad enhancement of wild urchins using formulated feed and pursuing a strategy of full domestication, with the explicit goal of bringing the entire production cycle of sea urchins under controlled conditions."

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an economic perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable

Details of assessment carried out: this study

Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Authors state: "The coast of the Kola Peninsula has a good potential for the development of the green sea urchin farming but several financial, socio‐economic, logistic and management problems must be solved before this process starts."

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a social perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable

Details of assessment carried out: this study

Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Authors state: "The coast of the Kola Peninsula has a good potential for the development of the green sea urchin farming but several financial, socio‐economic, logistic and management problems must be solved before this process starts."

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a human health perspective been recorded?: not recorded

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an animal health/welfare perspective been recorded?: not recorded


Recommendations provided in the record to maintain or enhance the sustainability of the use of the target species

Authors state: "the difficult modern financial climate in Russia together with poor transport infrastructure and a poor legal framework in aquaculture management impede the development of sea urchin farming in the Murmansk Region.Russian scientists and local businessmen are interested in developing the technologies for sea urchin aquaculture in the Barents Sea region but they have no adequate funding to do so. New investors such as large national oil and gas holdings need to be involved in resolving this problem. A political solution of the Russian Government is necessary to incorporate major players in this industry."


Record source

Information about the record source: scientific_pub

Date of publication/issue/production: 2020-01-01T00:00:00+0000

Source Reference(s):

Dvoretsky, A. G., & Dvoretsky, V. G. (2020). Aquaculture of green sea urchin in the Barents Sea: a brief review of Russian studies. Reviews in Aquaculture, 12(4), 2080-2090.

Date of record entry: 2022-12-30