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Sea Urchins
Sea urchins are called pincushions, because
they look like pins in a cushion. Sea urchins eat plants. They eat
kelp. Sea urchins carry thousands of eggs. The urchins are not very
active. Some sea urchins drill with their spikes to capture food.
Some of the sea urchins are ball shapes. The sea
urchin family belongs to the group of small, little boneless animals called
echinoderms. Sea urchins live in different parts of the ocean, some live
in rocks; and they live on the bottom of the ocean all over the world.
The spiny urchins camouflage and hide in rocks so predators don’t eat them.
The sea urchins eat anything that drifts at the middle or bottom of the
sea. The predators of the sea urchins are lobster, fish, and sea otters.
Sea otters do not live in the waters around Anacapa Island anymore.
Therefore, there are many sea urchins. The urchins have eaten much
of the kelp forests around Anacapa.
