Considered a delicacy in several parts of the world, sea urchin, or uni in Japanese, is prized for its unique flavor. But the cost of the gonads — the orange tongues found inside an urchin — is steep.

A sea urchin is a study in contradictions: tenacious and spiky on the outside, vulnerable and velvety on the inside. With a beauty both fragile and fierce, it can burrow for decades into rock, but die ...

Ravenous, brainless and covered with spikes, sea urchins have evolved to not be messed with. Off of the south coast of Oregon, one kind of urchin in particular, the purple sea urchin, is enjoying an ...