Look! The ocean floor is purple.

A purple urchin at the Bodega Marine Lab. Tens of millions have already chomped through towering underwater kelp forests in California. (AP)
A destroyed kelp forest is filled with purple sea urchins off the Oregon coast. (AP)
Steven Rumrill, a shellfish expert, places his hand next to the shells of red sea urchins to show how big they can grow. (AP)
Karl Menard checks tubs of purple urchins harvested in California and now fed to make them big enough to sell for food. (AP)
The inside of the sea urchin (called roe, or uni) is the part people can pull out and cook for food. (AP)

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Oh no! The ocean floor is changing colors. It has a carpet of round purple critters.
They creep on the sand. They eat up kelp. Seaweed is gone. The sea floor is empty.
Purple sea urchins have taken over.

Read More: The West Coast has been invaded by round, squishy sea urchins. The prickly globes add pops of color to the ocean floor. But they gobble up forests of kelp (seaweed). Some people think sea urchins taste delicious. There are plenty to sell as seafood. Can people eat their way out of this purple problem? Psalm 104:25 says, “Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great.”

Lesson #3: Spiky Sea Urchins. Here are several easy craft ideas for making spiky sea urchins. (1) Use self-hardening modeling clay and round toothpicks. Be careful! These might be too sharp for very young children. Roll the clay into a ball. Tap the bottom against the table so that it fits flat. Push toothpicks into the clay to cover the ball. (2) Use colored pipe cleaners instead of toothpicks. (3) Cut a Styrofoam ball in half. Stick round toothpicks into the ball. Cover the ball and spikes with purple tempera paint. Let dry. Place in a coral reef diorama.