Oblong Sea Urchin

Echinometra oblonga

Other invertebrates
IUCN: Not evaluated

Usual depth0–11 m
Water temperature22–29 °C
Best monthsMarch, April, and May
How commonOccasional

Photo credit: (c) Alberto Alcalá, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Alberto Alcalá · CC BY · iNaturalist

About this species

Echinometra oblonga, also called the oblong urchin or 'ina 'ele 'ele in Hawaiian, is a very common rock boring urchin on shallow rocky shores of the tropical Indo-Pacific and Southern Africa.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Echinometra oblonga”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 36 records
February: 40 records
March: 66 records
April: 56 records
May: 56 records
June: 40 records
July: 38 records
August: 28 records
September: 32 records
October: 31 records
November: 28 records
December: 31 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 0–11 m · Deepest record: 441 m

0–10 m: 15 records
10–20 m: 1 records
20–30 m: 0 records
30–40 m: 0 records
40–50 m: 0 records
50–60 m: 0 records
60–70 m: 0 records
70–80 m: 0 records
80–90 m: 0 records
90–100 m: 0 records
100–110 m: 0 records
110+ m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 22–29 °C

20–22 °C: 1 records
22–24 °C: 1 records
24–26 °C: 35 records
26–28 °C: 13 records
28–30 °C: 38 records

Photos

(c) Ken-ichi Ueda, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Ken-ichi Ueda · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Cricket Raspet, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Cricket Raspet · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Nicholas Wei, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
no rights reserved · CC0 1.0 · iNaturalist
(c) Cricket Raspet, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Tyler Bishop, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Tyler Bishop, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Oblong Sea Urchin

Names in 1 more languages

Japanese: クロナガウニ

Other scientific names: Echinus oblonga, Echinus oblongus, Ellipsechinus oblongus, Mortensenia oblonga

Similar species

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
610 open-data records from 1825 to 2023.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.

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