Blue Heron Bridge Trolls

[jimw]

About basdetball sized--BHB Monday 10-28

It is clearly an urchin, but sooo big--someone told me it looks like one from the Indo-Pacific. Any other ideas?



Someone else said it might be a local deep water species. It was just north of the east bridge when we saw it on Monday........Very impressive!! Nice to see jet and scuba-Jenny. Temp still 81 on my computer and the viz about 25 ft.

 

[Arubandi07]

I'm hell in a titty bar.

Hell, somebody gotta keep the bouncers busy, right??

 

[lindai]

It is clearly an urchin, but sooo big--someone told me it looks like one from the Indo-Pacific. Any other ideas?

View attachment 169883

Someone else said it might be a local deep water species. It was just north of the east bridge when we saw it on Monday........Very impressive!! Nice to see jet and scuba-Jenny. Temp still 81 on my computer and the viz about 25 ft.

It is a Magnificent Urchin, Astropyga magnifica, page 379 in the Humann/DeLoach Reef Creature book (2nd edition). The book says it is rare and prefers deep-water habitats, but has been seen a couple of times at the bridge......

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

I would agree that it's a Magnificent Urchin except for the bulbous thing on it's top. And it is in the same size that the REEF book states..
I saw a smaller one over Memorial Day at the bridge.

 

[djtimmy77]

Neat urchin! If you do a google image search for the magnificent urchin, most of the images have that bulbous thing on top....probably part of the urchin.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

I keep forgetting google is your (my!) friend.
Closeup of the anus of the Magnificent Urchin (Astropyga magnificent). - tribe.net

The anus is on the top, its large and round, like an eyeball. The mouth faces the bottom of the sea floor.​

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[DiveDivaDM]

I keep forgetting google is your (my!) friend.
Closeup of the anus of the Magnificent Urchin (Astropyga magnificent). - tribe.net

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So, I wasn't looking directly in its eyeball. Bummer.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

yeah, I prefer it being an eyeball too.. though a bit creepy...

 

[jimw]

Magnificent fer sure!

It is a Magnificent Urchin, Astropyga magnifica, page 379 in the Humann/DeLoach Reef Creature book (2nd edition). The book says it is rare and prefers deep-water habitats, but has been seen a couple of times at the bridge......

Thank you lindai and scuba-jenny!! My Creature book is still the first edition--it ENDS at p 320, so they added a lot of images to the 2nd edition! I must update soon! In the meantime, Force E Riviera has open copies of the 3 basic marine ID books by Humann/DeLoach aka The Bible! I DID look after the dive to find what 1 of the critters we saw was--turned out to probably be the mate of the nearby male Pikeblenny.

The first pic is a Ragged Sea Hare, this is the 2nd one JoanneR has found in the past week or so. Next is the female pikeblenny which she found as well, then the nearby male, and a bigger than usual octo in a 3 or 4 inch pipe on the east side. Quite a creature feature Monday!!

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

nice finds! Haven't seen a ragged seahare in a while..