Another Killer on Caribbean Reefs

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Long-spined sea urchins, or Diadema antillarum, once blanketed many Caribbean reefs, grazing on the algae that grow on corals.

But a year ago, they began displaying strange symptoms - their sharp spines drooping or falling off, their suction-cup feet losing their grip. And they started dying in droves, from the Virgin Islands to Puerto Rico to Florida. It was a repeat disaster, similar to one in the 1980s that slashed sea urchin populations by around 98 percent....

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