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The turquoise waters of Hōnaunau Bay in Hawaii, an area popular with snorkelers and divers, are teeming with spiny creatures that threaten to push the coral reef "past the point of recovery," new research has found.
Sea urchin numbers here are exploding as the fish species that typically keep their populations in check decline due to overfishing, according to the study, published last month in the journal PLOS ONE. It's yet another blow to a reef already suffering damage from pollution as well as climate change-driven ocean heat waves and sea level rise.
Kelly J. van Woesik, a researcher at the North Carolina State University Center for Geospatial Analytics and a study author, first noticed unusually high numbers of sea urchins on snorkeling trips. "I knew there was a story to be told," she said.
She and her fellow researchers used data from scuba surveys and images taken from the air to track the health of the reef.
"We found on average 51 urchins per square meter, which is among the highest recorded densities on coral reefs anywhere in the world," van Woesik said.
Sea urchins are small marine invertebrates, characterized by their spiny bodies and found in oceans around the world. They play a useful role in preventing algae overgrowth, which can choke off oxygen to coral. However, they also eat the reef and too many of them can cause damaging erosion.
More at link in bio.
📸: Kelly van Woesik | Greg Asner
