in japan, sea urchin is a high end sushi topping.arded as a menace because inn large enough numbers, they can strip t the ocean floor of vegetatation. now a business start up is working on the profitable solution. >> reporter: fishermen in oita prefecture have little interest in thehe sea urchins that grow theirr local waters, as they don't containin much. look under the surface, and you see t there are far too m many the sea urchins. because they've eaten up the seaweed that's their main food, the urchins don't reach full maturity. whwhile sea urchins have had a serious impact on the ecosystem, one local start up sees this challenge as a business opportunity. >> translator: these are the sea urchin tanks. >> reporter: it takes just two months for them to mature and develop plenty of their rich delicious row. the feed pellets are made from seaweed, using the leftover parts that cannot be sold for cooking. the pellets have to be processed so they don't dissolve too quickly. this gives the urchins time to eat plenty. >> translator: tha

in japan sea urchin is a high end sushi topping. this is also regarded as a menace because in large enough numbers they can strip the ocean floorr of vegetation. now a businesess startup is working onn the profitable solution. >> fishermen in oita prefecture have little interest in the sea archins that grow in the l loca waters. look under the surface and you see there are far too manany of the sea u urchins becauause the ten up the s seaweed as their main food. the urchins don't reach full maturity. while sea urchins have had a serious impact on the ecosystem, one localal startup sees this challenge as a business opportunity. >> these are the sea urchin tanks. >> it takes just two months for them to mature and develop plenty of their rich,, deliciou row. the seed pellets are made from seaweed using left over parts that cannot be sold for cooking. the pellets have to be processed so they don't develop too quickly. this gives the urchins time to eat plenty. >> translator: thanks to this technology sea urchin will soon be a local spec

to process sea urchins, first in my garage, so i then started diving during the day, processing in the evening, and delivering to sushi bars. i had a couple tough years, but we learned to start buying local seafood. i started buyiying local lobsters aand local s swordfishsh and otr local l fish, and i startedd buyying out of bajaja californi. i starteted buying g groupers ad snappers and scallopops out of baja calalifornia anand diversid the business.s. [saw whirring] we buy directly frorom the boat. we know who we're buying from, and then we take care of the quality and get it to our different customer r levels, whwhether it''s a w wholesaler n francisco or whetheher it's a restaurant herere in san didiegr an individual who o walks in the door. we'll bring the fifish bak here, and we'll grade the fish one by one, so each h fish, we'l do a taiail cut, a core samplel. we'll g grade the fish. uh, number one? thisis one's a little different. thehe tail isa little bitit off color, but the core is n nice, so i graded it a 2g2g with a two plus 4. we hava limited amamount of wild fish we ccan

so everything from oysters to crabs to sea urchins. >> reporter: now nearly a year into the project,to device the best materials for their test subjects to latch on to. one prototype developed by students and faculty employees vertical reefs using materials that might be 3-d printed or mixed with organic substances. >> we'll be able to test that to see if the invertebrates will attach themselves and start to branch over, column to column, that we might really be able to build a sponge-like community. >> reporter: and being architects, the goal is to build from there. to develop structures that could be designed into big ticket projects all around san francisco bay, like the major shoreline upgrades planned for san francisco's embarcadero and already under way at crissy field. a coming golden age perhaps of what some are calling bioarchitecture. >> people engaging with the ecology and the ecology really becoming closer to people. >> reporter: a powerful combination. dan ashley, abc7 news. >> so many people have looked at that floating lab from land wondering what is that thing through

everything from oysters to crabs to sea urchins. >> reporter: the tatiar their th on to.ne prototype developed by students and faculty employs vertical reefs using materials that might be 3d printed or mixed with organic substances. >> so, we'll be able to test that to see if they will attach themself and then start to branch over column to column that we might really be able to build a sponge-like community. >> reporter: and being architects, the goal is to build from there. to develop structures that can be designed into big-ticket products all around san francisco bay like the major shoreline upgrades planned for embarcadero and already under way at chrissy field. a coming age of what some are calling >> dan ashley, abc7 news. >> that was really cool, mike. >> yeah. >> you know -- >> people thinking so far outside the box there. >> and as long as it helps our precious earth, i'm down. >> yeah, earth really needs a break, doesn't it? >> that's a whole other conversation. the earth might be tired of us. >> right. and that's what i was going to say. it's very tired of us

so everything from oysters to crabs to sea urchins. >> reporter: one prototype, developed by studentserials that might be 3-d printed. >> so we'll be able to test that to see if they will attach itself and start to branch over, column to column, that we might be able to build a sponge-like community. >> reporter: and being architects, the goal is to build from there. to develop structures that can be designed into big ticket projects around the bay, like the major shoreline upgrades. a coming golden age perhaps of what some are calling b bioarchitecture. >> people engaging with the ecology, and the ecology coming closer to people. >> reporter: a powerful combination. dan ashley, "abc7 news." >>> well, it was quite the breezy day out on the water today, spencer. >> it certainly was. it's been breezy all around the bay area. still is as a matter of fact. that's one reason we had a fire concern. i'll give you one more quick look at the fairfield fire. it's not very warm, only 74 degrees. it is quite dry with winds gusting up to 19 miles per hour right now. and wind gusts across the entir