Don Levitan News Today

A microscopic parasite that has been killing the Caribbean creatures since last year might also be at fault for a population collapse four decades ago

NEW YORK (AP) — Last year, sea urchins in the Caribbean started getting sick — shedding their spines, dying off and throwing reef ecosystems into chaos. Now, scientists think they’ve caught the killer in this marine murder mystery.

Scientists say a tiny parasite is to blame for the deaths of a large number of sea urchins in the Caribbean Sea.

Marine scientists have discovered the source of a mysterious outbreak that killed sea urchins in droves in the Caribbean Sea. The massive die-off was caused by a single-celled parasite.

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In the warm waters of the Caribbean, long-spined sea urchins — inky black creatures resembling pincushions stuck with knitting needles — gobble up algae with their claw-like mouths. But when the sea urchins aren’t around, this algae will smother coral reefs, eventually causing the corals to die. That’s what happened in the early 1980s. A […]

The culprit may also be the cause of an outbreak in the 1980s that killed almost all the urchins in the region, though scientists can't say for sure.

Scientists have found the source of a mysterious outbreak that killed sea urchins across the Caribbean last year. Researchers reported Wednesday that a tiny parasite is to blame for the

Last year, sea urchins in the Caribbean started getting sick -- shedding their spines, dying off and throwing reef ecosystems into chaos. Now, scientists think theyve caught the killer in this marine murder mystery.

The culprit may also be the cause of an outbreak in the 1980s that killed almost all the urchins in the region, though scientists can't say for sure.