Collector urchins are found at depths of 2 to 30 metres (7 to 100 ft) in the waters of the Indo-Pacific, Hawaii, the Red Sea, and The Bahamas.

They feed voraciously between November and January; one study found they consumed up to or in excess of half of seagrass production.

Collector urchins are found in the waters of the Indo-Pacific, Hawaii, the Red Sea, and The Bahamas.

[3] They are distributed from Mozambique to the Red Sea, westward to Hawaii and Clarion Island, eastward to Paumotu, and as far south as Port Jackson.

It also occurs at Shark Bay on the west coast of Australia and have been found in the waters of Governor's Harbor, Eleuthera Island, Bahamas.

Over the past ten years, overexploitation has caused a sharp decline in the collector urchin population.

[5] Hawaii state aquatic biologists, working with divers from the Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resources placed 1,000 native collector urchins on a 500 square metres (5,400 sq ft) area of reef in Kaneohe Bay on January 29, 2011.