{"id":591199,"date":"2023-08-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/goinggreens\/the-red-seas-sea-urchin-population-is-declining-heres-what-that-means\/"},"modified":"2023-08-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T00:00:00","slug":"the-red-seas-sea-urchin-population-is-declining-heres-what-that-means","status":"publish","type":"goinggreen","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/goinggreens\/the-red-seas-sea-urchin-population-is-declining-heres-what-that-means\/","title":{"rendered":"The Red Sea\u2019s sea urchin population is declining: Here\u2019s what that means"},"content":{"rendered":"

A rapid decline in Red Sea sea urchin stocks has biologists concerned <\/strong>about the future of the marine ecosystem. <\/strong>Earlier this year, two scientific reports ( here<\/a> and here<\/a>) detailed observations of mass mortalities in the Red Sea waters off the coasts of Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Declines had previously been recorded in July 2022 in the Mediterranean, leading to warnings that a migration of the event to the Red Sea could have \u201cpotentially catastrophic consequences.\u201d <\/p>\n

Pathogen vs pollution:<\/strong> The source of the epidemic is believed to be a pathogen introduced into the marine environment through the ballast water of shipping vessels, potentially stemming from a similar outbreak in the Caribbean. The spread of the mass mortalities \u201crules out the possibility that mortalities are caused by a local acute driver such as pollution,\u201d according to one report. Die-off among urchins at depths of 15-20 meters indicate \u201cthat the driver of fatalities is not restricted to shallow water where environmental effects are most potent.\u201d <\/p>\n

The pathogen causing the mass mortalities may have been dormant in the environment <\/strong>for many years<\/strong> and for unidentified reasons has been triggered to become more hostile and violent, Dr Omri Bronstein, who leads a team of researchers at the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat, told CNN<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Vanishing act: <\/strong>Once in contact with the suspected pathogen, a sea urchin\u2019s spines are paralyzed, causing visible signs of necrosis and rapid mortality. Within 48 hours a sea urchin will break down, its remains disappearing into the water or eaten by fish, which transport the pathogens to other urchins. <\/p>\n

Gardeners of the sea: <\/strong>Sea urchins play an important role in Red Sea ecosystems. As one of the main consumers in shallow marine habitats, they eat underwater algaes that compete with coral reefs for space and sunlight, and help coral larvae to settle and grow. Without sea urchin intervention, sea beds would consist of fields of algae, which grows at a much faster rate than coral. <\/p>\n

Urchins find safety in numbers:<\/strong> \u201cThere is a minimum critical population size that is needed in order to maintain a thriving population,\u201d Bronstein said. For protection from predators, the species \u201cnormally form aggregations or dozens, and sometimes even in the past, hundreds of individuals \u2026 by creating this cushion of spines they provide protection for the entire group.\u201d <\/p>\n

The loss of the urchins could threaten usually resilient Red Sea coral: <\/strong>Research suggests that Red Sea coral reefs are resilient to warming waters , as we reported last year<\/a>. The Red Sea could be used as a base to consider how other reefs might adapt to global warming and as a nursery for corals to restore the reefs in other areas \u2014 but not if Red Sea reefs are overrun by algae thanks to depletion of urchin stocks. <\/p>\n

Broodstocks face regulation roadblocks: <\/strong>Healthy black sea urchins could be kept in captivity to regrow populations that would then be transferred back to their native environment, Bronstein told CNN. But stock declines have led to strict regulations on destructive sampling of sea urchins in the Red Sea, limiting the size of research samples and potential broodstocks. <\/p>\n

Some attempts are being made to keep algal growth in check: <\/strong>Scientists have called for restrictions on practices that increase algae growth, including the use of chemical fertilizers that run-off into the sea. They\u2019re also asking for temporary bans on fishing species that eat algae. It\u2019s important to limit algal growth since \u201cthere is nothing we can create manually to clear the algae, even in the lab setting,\u201d Bronstein told CNN. <\/p>\n

Mitigating factors:<\/strong> There are other species that eat the algae, Dr. Mahmoud Hanafy, Professor of Marine Biology at Suez Canal University and scientific advisor to the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association (HEPCA), told the National<\/a>. Coral reefs could recover well on their own if the source of the mass mortalities is dealt with, Hanafy said. Sea urchins tend to have boom and bust years, agreed coral expert Maoz Fine at Hebrew University, telling the Times of Israel<\/a> that stocks could see organic recovery. <\/p>\n

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