Red Sea corals threatened by mystery sea urchin deaths
The Red Sea's spectacular coral reefs face a new threat, marine biologists warn -- the mass death of sea urchins that may be caused by a mystery disease. Because the long-spined creatures feed on algae that can suffocate corals, their die-off could "destroy our entire coral reef ecosystem," warns scientist Lisa-Maria Schmidt.
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00:10 So what we experienced the beginning of the year was a mass mortality event of
00:16 two sea urchin species here along the coastline of Israel in Eilat.
00:21 And why we are worried is actually that these two species are one of the most
00:25 important grazers, meaning that they're feeding on algae.
00:30 And we know that algae are always competing for space and for
00:33 sunlight with corals.
00:35 And algae are growing much faster and they can out-compete corals in the end,
00:40 overgrowing them and killing healthy coral reefs.
00:43 So somebody needs to control their growth.
00:46 And this is something like the ecological function of the sea urchins.
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