Biologia

Rev. Biol. Trop. (Int. J. Trop. Biol. ISSN-0034-7744) Vol. 53 (Suppl. 3): 345-355, December 2005 345
Producción de juveniles de erizo rojo Strongylocentrotus franciscanus
(Echinodermata: Echinoidea) en Baja California, México
Salas-Garza, A., E. Carpizo-Ituarte, G. Parés-Sierra, R. Martínez-López
& R. Quintana-Rodríguez
Instituto de Investigaciones Oceanológicas, Universidad Autónoma de BajaCalifornia, Apdo. Postal 453, Km 103,
Carretera Tijuana-Ensenada, Unidad Universitaria Ensenada, B.C. México; asalas@uabc.mx; ecarpizo@uabc.mx;
gsierra@uabc.mx; rquintana@agcenter.lsu.edu
Abstract: Juvenile production of the red sea urchin Strongylocentrotus franciscanus (Echinodermata:
Echinoidea) in Baja California, Mexico. The red sea urchin Strongylocentrotus franciscanus (Agassiz 1863)is harvested commercially in Baja California, Mexico, since 1970; however, in the last ten years the capture
per unit effort (CPUE) has decreased from 310 kg/fishing unit/day to 120 kg/fishing unit/day. For this reason,
actions were taken to develop a culture technology allowing massive production of juveniles for re-stocking
natural populations or for growing them commercially. We summarizesome of the basic studies and main
achievements in this effort. In Baja California, considerably faster larval development (~21 days) has been
attained than in the US northwest coast (62 days). Spawning of red sea urchins was routinely induced with KCl
while egg fertilization was performed using a 100 000-sperm/ml solution. Six microalgae species were tested
and Rhodomonas sp. produced the bestlarval development. The mean survival rate at the end of the larval period
was 25%, but results varied widely with bactch. From the feed ratios tested, best results were obtained using 7
000 cel/ml during the first week of larval development, followed by 10 000 cel/ml during the second and 15 000
cel/ml during the third week. KCl proved the most consistent metamorphic inducer, regularlyyielding metamorphosis
percentages higher than 90%. Metamorphosis was considered complete when the functional jaw that
juveniles use for first benthic feeding appeared (as soon as 20 days after induction). With this method several
thousands of red sea urchin juveniles were produced. They reached up to 1.5 mm in size during the first 50 days
of culture after metamorphosis, showing the great potentialfor mass production of this species in the laboratory.
Rev. Biol. Trop. 53(Suppl. 3): 345-355. Epub 2006 Jan 30.
Key words: Red sea urchin, metamorphosis, larval development, KCl, Strongylocentrotus franciscanus.
La distribución geográfica del erizo rojo
Strongylocentrotus franciscanus (Agassiz,
1863) comprende desde Alaska, EUA hasta
Isla de Cedros, en Baja California, México
(Ebert 1968).Esta especie se encuentra en sustratos rocosos desde la zona intermareal hasta 5m de profundidad, en lugares con corrientes moderadamente fuertes, aunque algunos organismos se han encontrado hasta los 125 m (Kato y Schroeter 1985). Los erizos se alimentan principalmente de algas verdes, rojas y pardas. En su estado adulto consumen principalmente el alga parda Macroscystis
pyrifera comúnmenteconocida como “Kelp”
(Tegner y Dayton 1977, Vadas 1977, Dayton y
Tegner 1984), la cual es muy abundante en la
región. En Baja California, México, la pesquería
del erizo rojo se inició a principios de los
años setenta y representa la actividad de pesca
ribereña más importante. En ella se emplean
aproximadamente 1 900 personas y genera más
de 5 millones de dólares (EUA) por temporada
de pesca,según datos de la SEMARNAT
(Palleiro-Nayar et al. 2003). La producción
máxima en la década de los 80’s rebasó las
6 000 toneladas de peso fresco total (incluye
todo el erizo); sin embargo, en la actualidad la
pesquería está regida por normativas y la cuota
Recibido 14-VI-2004. Corregido 09-XII-2004. Aceptado 17-V-2005.
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