Sea urchins have a bad reputation, but they are essential to a healthy marine environment including reefs. The Variegated sea urchin is one of several species of sea urchin.
This small shell called the Zebra Nerite does not grow larger than 11 millimetres in diameter and is not always easy to find on the coasts of our islands
When the Lionfish was first discovered in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Florida (around 1990), many people, including scientists, had no idea how quickly the species would spread and what an impact it would have in the Caribbean.
Of course, you can also find shells of bivalves such as oysters on the beaches in the ABC-islands. And one of the families you can encounter is the genus of the Spiny Oysters.
The most striking ‘wet’ forests in the world, but still somewhat the ‘underdogs’ of the forests as a whole, are the mangrove forests, the only forests that can grow and flourish in and near salt water.
Mangrove forests were the neglected child, forgotten by many despite major information campaigns by nature organisations over the years.
There are several species of hermit crabs and one of them is the blue-legged hermit crab, an animal that can be found in shallow water in various parts of the Caribbean Sea and therefore also on our island.
Marine snails which are part of the Nerite family often have small teethlike protrusions which can often be found on the mouth plate (columella fold), the calcerous part at the opening at the bottom of the shell where the slug’s body moves to the outside.