The sunshine is catching the ripples of the water in Santa Barbara Harbor. There are fishermen unloading their catch as diners at the waterfront restaurants look on. Half way down the pier, unloading her catch, is Stephanie Mutz.
Mutz, known locally as Sea Stephanie, dives in the Santa Barbara Channel to sustainably harvest sea urchins. In three baskets are around 400 urchins. They are a deep maroon color: a little bigger than tennis balls and their porcupine-like spines are still gently moving.
"There's still life. Yeah, you don't want to eat a dead urchin. It wouldn't go well for you," said Mutz.
"The good part [of the job] is most days it's not that difficult. Most times we have like really great days. It doesn't seem so much like a job. But yesterday was an interesting day, in that there was no wind, but there was some unexpected swell, which makes it very difficult to see anything underwater," she said of the perils of the job.
How popular is being an urchin diver? "I think there's 30 full-time urchin divers in Santa Barbara," said Mutz. But she admits she's the only woman.
What's it like to be a woman in such a male-dominated field then? "I just don't think about it. I don't like to focus on it. I think most, especially the hardworking guys, they just want to see you working hard," she said.
Mutz works through her catch, sorting them into crates to load up her van and take the urchins for delivery to restaurants and businesses on the Central and South Coast.
"Wednesdays is our biggest market day and then restaurants want seconds for the week. So then we will deliver on Saturdays as well," said Mutz.
It's really the ultimate sea-to-table experience. "It's like a no-brainer for California," said Mutz. "The chefs that I have worked with especially for many years become friends and my favorite part about it is the relationships being built and wanting to work really hard for them and understanding how they utilize the product so I can accommodate their needs better."
But what are these quirky echinoderms like to eat? The inside is yellow, almost the color of a sponge. The texture is smooth, more like a creamy avocado. And the flavor?
"It's sweet, it's salty, it's umami, and all three of those flavors can happen in your mouth and then change it up and evolve in your mouth with the same bite," said Mutz.
Ordering sea urchin on a menu is a delicacy and is priced like one — and they’re not to everyone’s palette — but seeing how much hard work goes into getting them onto your plate does put that high price tag into perspective.
