Melon sea Urchin - Echinus melo
Melon sea Urchin, Echinus melo, is a species of sea urchin in the family Echinidae. This species grows up to 17 cm (7 in) in diameter. It is spherical or slightly cone-shaped, and the colour of the test is mainly pinkish, yellowish, or greenish-yellow, and banded with white and pale brown, giving it a segmented appearance. The long primary spines are few in number and olive green with pale tips.
They grow in a single row on each ambulacral plate. The much shorter secondary spines are yellowish green and are densely packed in several rows. The melon sea urchin is found in the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern Atlantic Ocean between the Azores and the Bay of Biscay, and occasionally as far north as Ireland and Cornwall. Echinus melo is mainly a herbivore, grazing on algae, but it also consumes small invertebrates. It reproduces between March and April. riccio melone
This video was shot during a scuba dive in the area between Livorno and Gorgona Island. We are over 12 nautical miles from Livorno and about 6 miles from Gorgona. In this area the seabed rises from over 100 meters deep to 48 metres. It is an area that we know well in the part between 48 and 54 meters deep, but the sea always reserves unexpected surprises: in fact from the echo sounder we saw that there are reef at depths of 60, 70 meters and more. The interesting thing is that these deep rocks have never been visited by divers and therefore we are the first to document the beauty of these seabeds.
However, to be able to document the seabed with the camera it is necessary to have good lighting because the sun’s rays arrive very weakly and the colors of the seabed tend to be uniform grey; the lights instead allow our camera to highlight the entire range of colors present in the coral reef. To be able to document the seabed with the camera it is necessary to have good lighting because the sun’s rays arrive very weakly and the colors of the seabed tend to be uniform grey; the lights instead allow our camera to highlight the entire range of colors present in the coral reef.
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