The Department of Environment has renewed its call for residents to alert them if they come across dead or dying long-spined sea urchins, as reports continue to grow throughout the Caribbean of a mass die-off of the creatures.
In brief post to its social media account on Friday, 14 July, the DoE stated that the Diadema antillarum urchins were in distress and “experiencing high mortality throughout the Caribbean”.
The department noted that “23 jurisdictions have now reported urchin die-offs in the Caribbean, including St. Thomas, USVI, in early February, Jamaica in early March, and Mexico, Dominica and St. Vincent in May.”
According to the DoE, the Diadema Response Network, which is a collaborative effort across the region, has been formed to help track and investigate the mass death of of the the sea urchins.
In April during an initial call for public assistant to track and report the deaths, the DoE said a similar sudden mass death occurred between 1982-1983, in the western Atlantic and Caribbean basin, when the long-spined sea-urchin experienced a major sudden die-off, with no definitive cause of the mortality. The DoE estimates that the population has still not reached 20% of its prior population.
The DoE says the Cayman Islands have not reported any unusual deaths of these sea urchins yet.
“The most important thing the community can do is report ‘what, when and where’ they see anything unusual, particularly any dead individual sea urchins or group of dead urchins,” said Tammi Warrender of the DoE, who also heads up the department’s Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease Response Team.
She added, “Reports of healthy sea urchins will also be useful for our response. Sick or dead urchins may be unable to attach by their feet and be floating and/or have lost spine movement and/or spines, while dead urchins may have the skeleton exposed with loss of spines.”
The DoE has launched the EpiCollect ‘Urchin Health Cayman’ app to assist with tracking any reports about the diadema. Anyone who comes across a dead sea urchin is encouraged to use the app or to contact the DoE via WhatsApp at 926-0680 or email [email protected].
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