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In the Mediterranean, sea breams are the most effective Paracentrotus lividus and Arbacia lixula predators. Generally, seabreams dislodge adult urchins from the rocky substrate, turn them upside down and crush their tests. Sea urchins may respond to fish attacks clinging tenaciously to the substratum. This study is the first attempt to investigate sea urchin adhesion strength in two alternative algal assemblages of the rocky infralittoral and valuated its possible implication for fish predation. We hypothesized that (1) sea urchin adhesion strength is higher in rocky shores dominated by encrusting macroalgae (ECA) than in erected macroalgae (EMA); (2) predation rates upon sea urchins are lower in ECA than in EMA; and (3) predation rate on A. lixula is lower than that on P. lividus. We observed that attachment tenacity of both sea urchins was higher in ECA than EMA and that A. lixula exhibited a stronger attachment …