Nearly a year ago I met the amazing marine scientist Ashley Miskelly on a dive trip to the outer parts of the Great Barrier Reef. He changed forever my perspective of the word ‘urchin’.

By the end of that trip he had us all ignoring the stunning corals, the beautiful tropical reef fish and the magnificent oceanic pelagics and instead grovelling in the sandy bottom and broken coral debris for sea urchins.
If Ashley had been on this dive back here at Rapid Bay he’d have named this species, described its habitat, its mating habits, its life-cycle and distribution all before we had walked back to our cars. Not only that but he’d have done it in such a captivating way that would leave you wondering what treasure we had just witnessed.

Sadly I can’t be sure which species this is (it could be Amblypneustes pallidus, I know I’ve been told) so I will just have to let the image speak for itself. Oh, and bonus points to anyone who spots a pair of little red eyes in there!

Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 475, Mister Urchin’ 1/100s f/8.0 ISO100 100mm