The long spine sea urchin is a problem. Its main predator, rock lobster, is in low numbers due to over-fishing. Sea urchin numbers have consequently exploded denuding many of our reefs of seaweed and creating ‘urchin barrens’.
There’s a knock-on effect on many other species who need seaweed in their food chain.
Even though the plague on the Eurobodalla coast is primarily due to fewer rock lobsters keeping sea urchins in check, warming waters and a stronger East Australian Current due to climate change have taken the species south into Tasmanian waters where it has hammered kelp forests.
local centro urchin – Longspine Centrostephanus rodgersii – its spines knocked off in the high swells of an East Coast Low
See this link from Eurobodalla’s Nature Coast Marine Group for more info on this scourge :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OnHZXUcNdBlP78-I-6HkYP4RJQd8OanV/view
Words – Jack Egan
WOOEE 2022
