Looking at the splendid assortment of sushi and sashimi before him, he ponders their origin. The red meat of Hamachi, the Yellowtail Tuna, he knows, comes from local ocean waters, and increasingly from fish farms. Unagi, eel, is harvested from fresh water streams. But now his eyes have fallen upon the bright yellow piece of Uni. The gonad of the sea urchin is his favorite item, but he is not sure of its origin. "How did this small piece of Uni come to be here in front of me?" He asks himself. "Where did it come from, and what travels has it been through to arrive on this tray?" October 29, 1929 On Wall Street in New York City, stock traders were only slightly concerned at early morning selling and sharply declining prices. Throughout the south, prohibition agents chased moonshine bootleggers. President Hoover preached prosperity for the nation. On the west coast of Vancouver Island, near the Nasparti Inlet, a small bed of sea urchins have reached their springtime spawning cycle . Here, over a hundred million sperm are released by the males. Close to a million eggs from nearby females are fertilized, and their journey begins. Most of them, over nine hundred thousand, are taken out to sea, and are quickly consumed by microscopic predators. The remaining larvae drift into the Humbolt current, and are taken down the west coast of North America. Ten days later more than three quarters of them have been eaten by seagoing competitors. After three weeks of drifting in the swirling currents, fifty thousand of the creatures reach the waters of California, where again, animals higher on the food chain devour them in great numbers. At the reefs of the Channel Islands, five thousand remaining animals settle to the shallow ocean floor. Here, bottom dwelling anemones, as well as filter feeders ingest the still invisible newcomers. Sixty days after settling onto the reefs, the remaining five hundred urchins have become visible to the human eye, measuring one centimeter. The tiny urchins make their way into the protection of cracks and crevices on the reef bottom where, as their growth continues, they feed on drifting organisms smaller than themselves. Crabs, snails, and starfish descend upon the still helpless echinoderms, reducing their numbers to one hundred by the end of their first year. After three years, thirty juveniles have made their home on the reef. They are now one inch in diameter.

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