PARASITE
Red Sea epidemic kills off sea urchins, endanqerinq coral
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TELAVIV:Adeadlyepidemicthat EgyptandSaudiArabia. ranean Sea, where sea urchins Theresearcherssaidareportto isspreadingthroughtheRedSea Theprobableculpritisadisease- haveovertheyearsinvaded. Israelienvironmentalauthorities haskilledoffanentirespeciesof causingciliateparasitethatcauses Bronstein said there were re- had been submitted and that seaurchinintheGulfofAqaba, afastdeath,perhapsthesameone ports several months ago from emergency steps to protect the imperillingtheregion’suniquely thatwreakedhavoconseaurchin GreeceandTurkeyofseaurchin coralreefswerebeingexamined, resilientcoralreefs,anIsraelire- populationsintheCaribbean. deaths. Whilethatwas lesscon- ScientistsstudyingtheEilatarea searchteamhasfound. Injusttwo days, ahealthy Di- cerningatfirstsincetheywerean consideritacoralrefuge.
Thewholepopulationofblack ademasetosum—along-spined invasivespecies,thepathogenhas The corals that settled thou- seaurchins,aspeciesknownfor black sea urchin — becomes a nowcrossedbackintothenatural sands of years ago had to pass helping keep coralreefshealthy skeletonwithmassivetissueloss, populationintheRedSea. through a narrow strait to the inthe waters alsoknownas the said lead researcher Omri Bron- “There is nothing that can be souththatactedasathermalbar- GulfofEilat,waswipedoutovera stein, fromTel AvivUniversity’s donetostopthisatthemoment.” rier, ensuring they are more re-' couple months, according to a Steinhardt Museum of Natural Butthereisa“verynarrowwin- sistant to temperature increases teamfromTelAvivUniversity. HistoryandSchoolofZoology. dow”, he said, to create an iso- thatarethreateningreefsglobally.
Their findings, published in Somewashashoredead.Others latedpopulation,orbroodstock, Seaurchins play an important two peer-reviewed journals, cite areeatenbyfish,likelyspeeding oftheseaurchinsremainingelse- rolebyfeedingonalgaethatwould massmortalityinothercountries upcontagion. The first signs of where that could hopefully be otherwise block sunshine and inthe region, includingJordan, troubleappearedintheMediter- reintroducedlater. smotherthereefs.Reuters
