Mystery sea urchin deaths threaten Red Sea corals

The Manila Times

Mystery sea urchin deaths threaten Red Sea corals  Marine biologists fear a new threat to the Red Sea's coral reefs: the mass death of sea urchins, possibly due to a mysterious disease. These long-spined creatures eat algae that can harm corals. If they continue to die off, it could devastate the entire coral reef ecosystem, warns scientist Lisa-Maria Schmidt.  VIDEO BY AFP  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe    Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net    Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion    Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital    Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Stitcher: https://tmt.ph/stitcher Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein   #TheManilaTimes #redsea  #seaurchins  #mystery  #disease

Transcript

00:00 [Splashing water]

00:11 So what we experienced at the beginning of the year was a mass mortality event of two sea urchin species

00:18 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 important grazers,

00:27 meaning that they are feeding on algae.

00:30 And we know that algae are always competing for space and for sunlight with corals,

00:36 and algae are growing much faster and they can out-compete corals,

00:40 in the end overgrowing them and killing healthy coral reefs.

00:44 So somebody needs to control their growth,

00:46 and this is something like the ecological function of the sea urchins.

00:50 [Splashing water]

01:19 [Silence]

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