A category-defining sustainable global food startup that aims to help the kelp.

Unknown and unseen to most, kelp forests around the globe are disappearing at an alarming rate; more than 95 percent of California’s coastal kelp are gone, devoured by a population explosion of sea urchins. This has led to dead zones known as urchin barrens, where urchins can be seen for miles with no kelp in sight.

The problem has reverberated throughout the international seafood market and is creating an environmental crisis, as kelp forests create 88 times more ecosystem services than boreal forests.

Fishers, government officials and now entrepreneurs are scrambling to slow and even reverse the damage.

Uni, the delicacy inside an urchin's spiny shell, fetches premium prices at market. So it might seem that a surplus of urchins would be good business for commercial divers, the opposite is true. Barren urchins typically contain no roe.

Urchinomics aims to help kelp forests regrow by removing these starving urchins, fatten them up on land-based ranching systems with their patented feed, and sell the delicious uni roe to fine restaurants. Once removed from the ocean, the kelp naturally grows back in up to 3-6 weeks.

Jonathan Wood Design has been working with with Urchinomics to help develop it's message, visual language and brand for 7 years to relay their mission to the public, fishers, and investors.