[3] Ecteinascidia turbinata is found all the year round in shallow waters in the Caribbean Sea, the east coast of Florida, Bermuda and the Gulf of Mexico.

In the summer it is occasionally found in Chesapeake Bay, off the coasts of North and South Carolina and in the Mediterranean Sea.

When this is exhausted they need to find a suitable place to settle and metamorphosize into a juvenile sea squirt, ready to start a new colony.

[6] The function of these substances is uncertain but when combined with certain alkaloids, they render the tunicate distasteful to predators, and the organism's bright orange colouring advertises this.

The flatworm Maritigrella crozierae seems immune to the sea squirt's noxious chemicals and is able to crawl over the surface of the colony and insert a long pharynx into individual zooids to feed on their internal structures.

[3] Other biofouling organisms living in the vicinity of Ecteinascidia turbinata include various marine sponges and other species of tunicates.

[3] One of the alkaloids produced by a bacterial symbiont of Ecteinascidia turbinata is Ecteinascidin 743, also known as trabectedin, which has been found to have antitumor antibiotic properties and has been approved by EU and US drug regulators under the trade name "Yondelis" for treatment of certain soft tissue sarcomas and recurrent ovarian cancer.