FACT CHECKING: THE STORY ABOUT REPLENISHING SEA URCHINS IN MALTA

by TBA

The Times of Malta spun another one of its unsubstantiated stories when it announced that the government’s ambitious sea urchins “program will replenish the sea population” of urchins in Maltese waters in two years. The story was as simple as the Times could possibly spin it. There is a shortage of sea urchins in Maltese waters. This is due to overfishing since urchins are a delicacy. A fishing moratorium will be imposed for two years and contraveners will be penalised. As a result, the urchins will multiply. In the meantime, at Fort San Lucjan, urchins will be cultivated and released into the sea, further intensifying the multiplication.

Sea Urchins Cover

The Times told us that Minister for the Environment Miriam Dalli and Parliamentary Secretary for Aquaculture Alicia Bugeja Said visited the site where sea urchins are cultivated at Fort San Lucjan. The situation is under control, and one could imagine the young scientist in the photo below imploring the “rizzi” in the few and sparsely populated acquarium tanks to “be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” Children love fables with a happy conclusion.

Be Fruitful

Halfway across the globe, two months ago, the Smithsonian Magazine made a concerning revelation. Sea urchins in the Caribbean are facing a rapid demise due to a microscopic parasite. A collaborative effort by 48 scientists from 12 different countries successfully uncovered the cause behind the alarming disappearance of these sea creatures.

The prime suspect turned out to be a parasite called a ciliate. This single-celled organism, resembling a fuzzy-looking amoeba, propels itself using numerous hair-like structures. Specifically, a type of ciliate known as scuticociliate is responsible for sea urchin fatalities. When infected sea urchins were introduced to healthy ones in a controlled environment, the ciliate swiftly infected and killed the healthy urchins within a matter of days. This raises concerns that if the scuticociliate is present in our waters, the Fort San Lucjan urchins, upon release, will face disaster as they mingle with the existing free-range urchins, leading to further fatalities.

Researchers speculated that this amoeba might be the same parasite that caused a significant decline in sea urchin populations four decades ago. However, due to the lack of sea urchin samples from that time period, they cannot confirm this hypothesis.

The implications of this infestation could have far-reaching consequences. With fewer sea urchins, coral reefs become increasingly vulnerable to algae overgrowth and deterioration. Normally, urchins consume algae, which competes with coral and covers it, obstructing sunlight. Since the drastic decline of sea urchins forty years ago, only 12 percent of the original population has been restored. Meanwhile, in Malta, algae are rapidly encroaching upon our reefs. Alarmingly, the government assumes it can replenish the missing urchins, within a mere two years, without any scientific basis for such a claim.

Due to the overfishing hypothesis and two-year moratorium, fish importers and restaurants are allowed to import sea urchins. This is the worst possible course of action since imported urchins contaminated with the parasite could compromise further our few remaining urchins.