on St. Croix, USVI: Current Status and Interactions with Herbivorous Fishes.

The 1983-84 mass mortality of the long-spined sea urchin, , intensified the loss of herbivory that was a major factor in the degradation of coral reefs in the wider Caribbean. As determined from recent surveys, densities of populations at back reef locations on St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, are higher than densities immediately following the die-off - but still about an order of magnitude below pre-die-off densities and patchy in both time and space.