After mystery sea star die-off, could captive breeding rebalance California's underwater forests // National Geographic online (2021)

Jon Holcomb, a retired urchin fisherman, uses his homemade airlift vacuum and a rake to suck urchins off the sea floor and drops them into a large urchin bag attached to the back.

The bags are then loaded onto the boat and taken to the harbor. With the vacuum, two divers working for four hours can remove over 1500 pounds of purple urchins.