THE DIADEMA DILEMMA

IT’S GOING TO TAKE FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE TO BRING BACK THE LONG-SPINE SEA URCHIN DIADEMA ANTILLARUM IN THE CARIBBEAN AND ATLANTIC. ALL STAR LIVEABOARDS FOUNDER BRUCE PURDY HAS SPENT DECADES STUDYING THE PROBLEM, AND HAS COMMITTED HIS CAT PPALU LIVEABOARD TO THE FIGHT, INVITING GUESTS TO JOIN DIVERS INTENT ON PRESERVING THE EXUMAS’ SPECTACULAR REEFS FOR GENERATIONS TO COME.

- MARY FRANCES EMMONS

Cat Ppalu engineer Triangle, Dan Demers along with helps Galapagos transfer and urchins Malpelo. harvested Scalloped for transplant from are the a shal-hammerheads common lows to sight. deeper reefs.

Hey, are we gonna get to do that urchin thing?”

That hopeful query is the first thing I hear when I come aboard cozy Cat Ppalu, All Star Liveaboards’ 65-foot catamaran, glistening from a light spritz of rain that’s just passed over its home marina on Nassau’s east side, in full view of the soaring Paradise Island bridge.

The question comes from one of many repeat guests aboard—more than half sailing this week are returning customers. Even though this is my first time, I know what he’s talking about, for this is a cruise with a mission.

We haven’t left the marina and our quest begins. “Wanna come collect urchins?” asks my dive buddy, Addie Benz, 25, All Star’s resident marine biologist and co-leader of this citizen-science liveaboard trip.

Grabbing mask, fins, a couple of coolers and some tickle sticks, we hop in a dinghy; dive instructor Martyna Pietkiewicz takes the tiller and we roar around the dock toward Potters Cay. Along the seawalls of Nassau Harbour are so many Diadema antillarum we can see them from the dinghy.

Flopping over the side into a few feet of water, we drop weighted wire baskets and each take a wand, sliding them gently under the urchins and trying to lift them carefully into the baskets. The urchins aren’t so down with this, so there’s a bit of a bobble, like balancing an egg on a spoon. Really it’s more like a Hogwarts class: It takes practice to coax these fantastical creatures to do your bidding, and fantastical they are.