Diseased urchins in so Cal?

[drbill]

So far this seems to be specific to the red urchin (S. franciscanus) and apparently is not affecting other species. The Catalina coast from Long Point to the East End tends to have some of the warmest waters in so Cal, so it may be affected first by such outbreaks.

Dr. Bill

 

[scottfiji]

Are you implying that divers are stupid and don't know scientific terms.... :11ztongue
I am joking, a bit. I know what a test is. If Dr. Bill doesn't use correct terminolgy, how will the rest of us ever learn?
QUOTE]

Neither I nor my biologist fiancee knew what a "sea urchin test" was, so we incorrectly assumed most other diver's wouldn't know either. A little too arrogant on my part... I apologize if Dr. Bill or other divers felt any disrespect, none was intended...

Anyways, I know divers can't be stupid, everyone of us was required to pass a grueling examination after our open-water training in order to be certified.

Dr. Bill, thanks for teaching us something new... and I look forward to seeing more science- oriented posts from you and others...

Scott

 

[SoCalAngel]

Anyways, I know divers can't be stupid, everyone of us was required to pass a grueling examination after our open-water training in order to be certified.

Too true, that was an awfully difficult test...unlike the hardness of the sea urchin test...

Dr. Bill, I think this probably has something to do with the El Nino, too. I swa scythe Butterfly fish last month at San Clemente Island, and there have been several spotted porcupine fish sightings along Laguna. It seems to be a warming trend. It you take into the unusual breezes from the ocean to land (is that on-shore or off-shore, I am confused?) it adds up to an El Nino.

El Ninos are supposed to come every 4-7 years, so it's about right in the timing...

 

[archman]

As I'm sure most of you know, warmer waters bring in enhanced parasite and disease vectors, as well as boost bacterial and fungal metabolic (and thus growth) rates. A species-specific illness would not be unusual in these situations. It would be nice to report the observed problems to the local universities, and have them run the usual tests. Wish I was there, this sounds like a fun project. Who's the regional echinoderm person out there, is it Gordon Hendler at the LA County Museum?

 

[archman]

I remembered that Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis up in the NE Atlantic suffers mass mortalities every now and again... amoeboid parasite or something.

Found this off Oregon State website, referring to ailment types of your local red species.

1. Lesions on body wall via communicable disease from bacteria
2. Protozoan cause loss of muscle function in tube feet
3. A diatom species cause death via epidermal disintegration
4. Turbellarian worms in digestive tract (Iversen and Hale 1992)

Here's a nice paper on "bald-urchin-disease" of S. droebachiensis. It has nice symptom descriptions, and some crummy photos.
http://www86.homepage.villanova.edu/michael.russell/PDF_Links/Dumont_et_al_IEC_03.pdf