(Image credit: Scott Ling)

ADULT: Spiky black ball with dark purple/ red spines with iridescent blue/green sheen to spines when looking down the shaft. The spines are hollow rather than having a solid core and are longer than half of the shell diameter.

Please email Redmap, enquiries@redmap.org.au, if you see a barren in any of the regions of Tasmania described below, or follow the instructions on the species page for the longspine sea urchin:

Incipient barrens: holes in the kelp cover 1-100 m, revealing bare rock (no understory algae or invertebrates), caused and maintained by long spined sea urchins on reefs along Tasmania's western and northern coasts. Also along the east coast, south of the Tasman Peninsula.

Extensive barrens: holes in the kelp cover >100 m, revealing bare rock (no understory algae or invertebrates), caused and maintained by Long spined sea urcins on reefs south of Riedl Bay on Maria Island/Triabunna on mainland Tasmania and on any western and northern Tasmanian mainland coast.

Length: Diameter up to 19 cm

Habitat

Exposed reef; 0-35 m depth

Log it

Log ONLY if spotted in Tasmanian waters south of Tasman Peninsula on the east coast - or anywhere along Tasmania's western and northern coasts

Related links/info

Species names on the Redmap site are based on the Codes for Australian Aquatic Biota or CAAB (http://www.cmar.csiro.au/caab/). This is updated regularly and lists the approved common name, family, species name and more.

Redmap species descriptions were based, with permission, on the following resources:

Australian Marine Life: The Plants and Animals of Temperate Waters by G. J. Edgar, Revised Ed. (2008) Reed Books, Melbourne

Fishes of Australia’s Southern Coast, Edited by M. Gomon. D. Bray and R. Kuiter (2008) Reed Books, Melbourne

Find further information and images at FISHES OF AUSTRALIA http://www.fishesofaustralia.net.au/