So this is a really interesting interaction here. We have an
urchin that's been climbing up this tall bamboo whip coral and
you can see below the urchin, it's all what we called denuded,
it so all of the living material has been stripped off
of it and up above it, the bamboo is still alive and so
the suspicion is this urchin started at the bottom and has
been munching its way up the top of this uh this bamboo
coral. Really interesting observation, Rhian. Um I'm I'm kinda
shocked actually. I wasn't convinced that the Echinus
were feeding on some of these bamboos that we've seen them on
but boy, this sure looks like what's been going on. I think
this urchin has been caught red handed in fact. Yeah. And you
can see the polyps very close to it are all retracted and
further up there a little bit more out so you can see those
sharp spines. So this urchin must be able to get around
those sharp spines, it doesn't seem to affect it whatsoever. I
was gonna say that does not appear to be much of a
defensive mechanism from what I'm seeing here. And um I feel
like a defense lawyer for this urchin. I keep trying to make
excuses for it but this sure looks like a smoking gun. It
does. It does. It's a great interaction to have filmed. Thanks
so much pilots.