Pointy, venomous and pretty creepy to look at, the black porcupine sea urchin is low on the list of things you’d like to run into on a trip to the beach — but following the urchin’s recent mass extinction in the Gulf of Eilat, marine researchers and conservationists have launched a new public initiative to pinpoint the straggling population of the once-prosperous creatures.

The black sea urchin was a common sight in Eilat’s waters as recently as two years ago, with populations so dense that barely a square meter of seabed remained unoccupied. However, recent years have seen a mass die-off event that has nearly eliminated the urchin population from the Gulf of Eilat.

The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) is calling on the public to report urchin sightings through its SeaWatch app, emphasizing that all sea urchins in Israel are protected species and should not be touched or disturbed.

“In Eilat, as a local species, the sea urchins perform an essential role in the coral reef: They feed on the algae that cover the coral, thus helping the penetration of light and maintaining the health of the reef,” explains Bar Sternbach, SeaWatch coordinator at SPNI.

Considering the urchins’ key role in maintaining the health of Eilat’s reefs, SPNI believes it’s critical to figure out where they’ve all gone so that they can keep them alive and well.

At the same time, though, SPNI must figure out a way to keep the sea urchins from invading the Mediterranean Sea; as it turns out, these pesky pokeys are been threatening the ecological balance there, where they’ve been acting as an invasive species since 2017.

“Their spread may harm biodiversity,” Sternbach explains. “They compete with other plant species for food, and have no natural predators, which is expected to lead to an increase in their population.”

So while they want to know where the urchins are in the Gulf of Eilat in order to help them thrive, researchers also hope to map their invasion of the sea in order to develop a policy for their containment.

The SeaWatch app, which already has 16,000 users and has collected about 4,500 reports, allows citizens to report various marine issues, including illegal fishing, injured animals, pollution and now, sea urchin sightings.

The distinctive species can be identified by its five iridescent white spots, long spines (up to 15cm), and similarity to what you imagine when you hear the phrase “black demon tennis ball.”

Nirit Lavi-Alon, citizen science coordinator at SPNI and the Israeli Citizen Science Center, highlights the importance of public participation.

“In recent years, citizen science projects that combine researchers and the general public have made it possible to collect information on a wide variety of animal species and thus contribute to research and nature conservation,” she says. “I hope that Israel will also recognize the great value of this cooperation and support similar projects.”