As coral reefs struggle to adapt to warming waters, high levels of pollution and sea-level rise, ballooning sea-urchin populations are threatening to push some reefs in Hawaii past the point of recovery.
As coral reefs struggle to adapt to warming waters, high levels of pollution and sea-level rise, ballooning sea-urchin populations are threatening to push some reefs in Hawaii past the point of recovery.
The phenomenon is described in a new study that uses on-site field work and airborne imagery to track the health of the reef in Hōnaunau Bay, Hawaii. Overfishing is the main culprit behind the explosion in sea-urchin numbers, said Kelly van Woesik, Ph.D. student in the North Carolina State University Center for Geospatial Analytics and first author of the study.
“Fishing in these areas has greatly reduced the number of fishes that feed on these urchins, and so urchin populations have grown significantly,” van Woesik said. “We are seeing areas where you have about 51 urchins per square meter, which is among the highest population density for sea urchins anywhere in the world.”
Read More: North Carolina State University
Photo Credit: iam_yum via Pixabay
