Thanks to the marine scientists at the University of South Florida, we now know what has been causing the long spine urchins to die off. It's a specific species of ciliate – called a scuticociliate.
Sea Urchin Killer Identified: Scientists Unmask the Microscopic Menace Behind Massive Die-Off Event
The mass die-off of the long-spined sea urchin – a loss that threatens the health of coral reefs from the Caribbean to Florida’s east coast – was caused by a one-celled organism called a ciliate. The search for the 2022 killer that decimated the long-spined sea urchin population in the Caribbean
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