Urchins Culprit Of Mysterious Underwater Noise
So who is causing all this commotion in the waters off New Zealand? What animals could possibly be responsible for the 20-30 decibal noise an incerase of a hundrend to a thousands time ambient levels, being heard twice daily? Well, sea urchins of course.
Though urchins have been suspected for a while to be responsible to this mysterious noise, i would assume its not first on everybodies suspected noisey animals list. Although, if you ever seen the mouth of a urchin, called Aristole's lantern, you would know that these guys pack a serious bite.
Apparently, these nocturnal invertebrates come out at dusk, which anyone who has done a night dive knows, to chow down on algae off rocks. They are so hungry, that they create this loud nosie and another one at dawn as a kinda midnight snack.
Maybe you gotta be a ocean nut to think this kind of stuff is cool, but imagine a lot of DPG readers are, and I, for one, think this is very interesting stuff. Come on? The lowly urchin making such a roucus. Good stuff.
