Sea Urchin, the reef killer

Often times we post about Urchins negatively impacting our tanks by eating coralline algae – I personally keep them in my reef as I like them. But here is a study that actually shows that over fished reefs cause excessive amounts of Urchins, that in turn eat the coralline thereby reducing the calcium carbonate available….interesting read – here is the link and a touch of the article:

Sea urchins destroy reef building algae in overfished sites on Kenya's coast

ScienceDaily (Jan. 14, 2011) — An 18-year study of Kenya's coral reefs by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of California at Santa Cruz has found that overfished reef systems have more sea urchins -- organisms that in turn eat coral algae that build tropical reef systems.
By contrast, reef systems closed to fishing have fewer sea urchins -- the result of predatory fish keeping urchins under control -- and higher coral growth rates and more structure.

 

Interesting article Crimson Ghost, thanks for sharing

It does show exactly what the consequences can be to the whole system, when you disturb or change any part of it

Steve

 

Interesting, thanks.

Similar problems in N. Ca. When the sea otter populations took the dive, the populations of urchins sky rocketed, in turn the kelp population declines and the cascade effect just keeps on going.