Recent decades have witnessed the continuing loss of BVI coral reefs, following extreme climate events, increasing macroalgal blooms and the devastation wrought by Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease. A novel phenomenon has now appeared which threatens to accelerate the decline of the remaining corals – an aggressive peyssonnelioid algal crust (PAC). We will investigate the potential for mitigation of this threat using a natural predator of PAC, the black sea urchin Diadema antillarum.
