Our mission

News: “An Extremely Violent Global Pandemic” – Mysterious Disease Wipes Out Sea Urchins Worldwide

On our own coast we have too many urchins, but i’m pretty sure a global die off isn’t the way to solve it

No urchins might mean more algae, which is no good for corals in more than 1 way
 
Wow thanks for the article!!
California is having a major reverse issue just crazy the domino effects on nature.
Have had a vandetta against our local purple urchins for a long time now Ha
95% of California sunflower starfish parished due to a disease along with the common starfish record decline! some refer to functionally extinct.
Sea urchin population has beyond exploded due to that disease which they have eaten over 95% of our local kelp beds. Most all my fishing spots from here to Humboldt there's barely any kelp so fishing is poor now..I did stop abalone diving due to kelp decline primarily for safety factors since the dense kelp forests kept those gw's farther out! However they banned abalone diving a few years later and it's still banned totally agree.
Previous years daily limit on purple sea urchin used to be eight 5 gallon buckets locally and thirty-five 5g buckets in Mendo& Humboldt
Good spots low tide can fill a bucket well under 10 min easily
This year no limits can daily fill your truck or car up!!!
Get your urchin ON! Save some kelp.
 
PjFish said:
Wow thanks for the article!!
California is having a major reverse issue just crazy the domino effects on nature.
Have had a vandetta against our local purple urchins for a long time now Ha
95% of California sunflower starfish parished due to a disease along with the common starfish record decline! some refer to functionally extinct.
Sea urchin population has beyond exploded due to that disease which they have eaten over 95% of our local kelp beds. Most all my fishing spots from here to Humboldt there's barely any kelp so fishing is poor now..I did stop abalone diving due to kelp decline primarily for safety factors since the dense kelp forests kept those gw's farther out! However they banned abalone diving a few years later and it's still banned totally agree.
Previous years daily limit on purple sea urchin used to be eight 5 gallon buckets locally and thirty-five 5g buckets in Mendo& Humboldt
Good spots low tide can fill a bucket well under 10 min easily
This year no limits can daily fill your truck or car up!!!
Get your urchin ON! Save some kelp.
Click to expand...

We got to see baby sun stars at the Academy tour. So they’re still around, just not in the wild anymore :(

Similar situation to Dendrogyra cylindricus pillar coral, they’re sadly considered functionally extinct in Florida reef tract but there’s a couple specimens in captivity for spawning efforts

As for the urchin situation in the article, I looked up the DDAM model that Reef Builders mentioned once. Herbivore die off isn’t great because algae not only compete for space physically but also release DOC, which can encourage some coral symbionts to express pathogenic genes
 
Yeah think they started successfully breeding sunflower stars down south which maybe resistant to the star fish wasting disease..
Yes their around just super small numbers still see one or two every couple months along our coast which increase a bit the more north but we used to get them in crab nets all the time..
Amazing animals jelly texture 2 feet across
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top