Fisheries officials in St. Lucia are investigating an apparent mass die-off of long spine Black Sea Eggs from the Caribbean islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St. Thomas, Saba and Statia.
The Department of Fisheries (DOF) has asked anyone who has made any sightings of dead and/or dying Black Sea Eggs (Diadema antillarum) to make a report to the Department immediately.
It says the current die-off follows similar patterns to one which occurred in the 1980s, in which there was 95-99% mortality of the population throughout the Caribbean.
Sea eggs, or sea urchins are herbivores, and graze on algae on the reef, providing vacant space for coral to settle and grow. The DOF says too few of them can then lead to algae overgrowth which may suffocate coral, killing them.
In extreme cases, this can lead to an algae-dominated reef system, instead of a coral-dominated system.
It notes the original cause of the 1980s die off was not determined, however the loss of the keystone species was devastating. As such, it says it is important to track the progress of this mass mortality event in the region and attempt to mitigate the spread of this phenomenon in St. Lucia
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