[Coral-List] Sea Urchins eating iron cannons, RE: Coral-List Digest, Vol 53, Issue 16

[Seven Seas Ltd - Henry E. Tonnemacher]

Dear Eugene Shinn, In my many years of diving on many cannons          at many sites in the Caribbean, the cannons and mortars at          this particular site in St. Croix are the ONLY ones I have          ever seen with any evidence of burrowing urchins. These          particular burrows are below any carbonate crust that has          formed and are into the iron cannons themselves. Absent          time-lapse video and further chemical analysis I see no          reasonable explanation of the urchins found in these burrows.          Hank
           
           
          Message: 4
          Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2013 10:09:16 -0500
          From: Eugene Shinn <eshinn at marine.usf.edu>
          Subject: [Coral-List] Sea Urchins eating iron cannons
          To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
          Message-ID: <a0623090fcd19cf125880@[131.247.136.119]>
          Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"

          Dear, Hank Tonnemacher, In my earlier years I salved quite a          few old 
          cannons and still have one in my front yard. They all had a a          thick 
          oxide and carbonate crust and lots of coral. After cleaning          them off 
          I never saw evidence of urchins burrowing into the iron. I          think they 
          just burrow into the thick encrustation. Gene
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No Rocks, No Water, No Ecosystem (EAS)
------------------------------------          -----------------------------------
E. A. Shinn, Courtesy Professor
          University of South Florida
          College of Marine Science Room 221A
          140 Seventh Avenue South
          St. Petersburg, FL 33701
<eshinn at marine.usf.edu>
          Tel 727 553-1158----------------------------------