Thousands of crown-of-thorns starfish are understood to be eating their way through coral in a major outbreak at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, as authorities consider how to tackle the problem.

The outbreak on the Swain Reefs off Yeppoon was discovered last year, but the area is remote and hostile, hampering efforts to control the spread of the coral-killing marine animal.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) has confirmed it has been working out how to deal with the outbreak since last year.

The starfish is native to the reef but when numbers explode, the results can be devastating, as thousands of the creatures munch their way through the coral.
Typically scientists link outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns starfish to spikes in ocean nutrients caused by coastal and agricultural run-off into the ocean.

For that reason outbreaks are usually further north and closer to the coast, but the Swain Reefs are a long way offshore and on the southern end of the reef, so it is not known what caused the outbreak.

The crown-of-thorns outbreak puts more strain on a Great Barrier Reef system that has seen two consecutive years of mass coral bleaching from ocean warming.

An international study, published today in the prestigious Science journal, warned that the window of time for saving the world's reefs from coral bleaching was closing.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-05/great-barrier-reef-crown-of-thorns-starfis...

BigOl64 wrote on Jan 6^th, 2018 at 12:15pm:


Yea kick the farmers.  Everything is their fault.

Not the urban people pumping out CO2 like there is no tomorrow.

when we first came here they were blaming the Crown of Thorns.. no one had heard of CC back then...

then all of a sudden  one can only presume they all died  as they stopped talking about the Crown of thorns..

now they call it  The outbreak

so where have all these little beggars been in the last 50 years?...

cods wrote on Jan 6^th, 2018 at 2:48pm:


On healthy coral reefs, the coral-eating starfish plays an important role, as it tends to feed on the fastest growing corals such as staghorn and plate corals, allowing slower growing coral species to form colonies. This helps increase coral diversity. However, outbreaks of the venomous starfish pose one of the most significant threats to the Great Barrier Reef.

Cyclic outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns starfish occur approximately every 17 years. There have been four documented outbreaks on the Great Barrier Reef since the 1960s.

http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/about-the-reef/animals/crown-of-thorns-starfish

So in answer to your question cods, they have plagues of them. Much like locusts

The most notable predator of the crown of thorns starfish is the Giant Triton. Tritons eat about 2 or 3 crown of thorns starfish per week. But Tritons are too few in number to keep the crown of thorns starfish population down. According to researchers, they want to release Tritons in regions of the Great Barrier Reef that are accessible. If researchers can breed enough adult Tritons to release into the GBR, then Triton numbers could flourish, and COTS numbers can be controlled.

UnSubRocky wrote on Jan 7^th, 2018 at 8:00pm:



Are there any natural predators of the Triton? What else do they eat?

lee wrote on Jan 7^th, 2018 at 9:22pm:


After a quick look, there is no information about what could eat the Triton Snail. Perhaps the shell is sufficient protection for it to live unchallenged. The snail might only get eaten by smaller microorganisms after it dies. Hopefully, the Triton can flourish along the Great Barrier Reef in the very near future.

cods wrote on Jan 6^th, 2018 at 2:48pm:

LOL
For True Believers cods everything bad is due to Climate Change.
Go figure.

Grendel wrote on Jan 8^th, 2018 at 7:49am:


No you are wrong again Grendel
COT plagues have nothing to do with climate change

Grendel wrote on Jan 8^th, 2018 at 7:49am:



Nah it is all due to farmers. We should handle them Zimbabwe style. That would solve all Australia's problems.

The_Barnacle wrote on Jan 8^th, 2018 at 10:44am:

  due to my limited knowledge of marine life- I think COT are merely a symptom of an ailing /sick reef- when the reefs defences are down or sick as it is now these nasty things move in- it would seem- so in effect climate change is to blame as Climate change weakens the reef

I thought the Tritons eating COT was heartening and could well be a cure for this problem in the future but then apple cider vinegar is a cure for most things so I have great faith in that and bi carb soda combo to take these things out

BigOl64 wrote on Jan 21^st, 2018 at 9:51am:


Agree.

Agnes wrote on Jan 21^st, 2018 at 10:07am:



There is only so much money to go around and gold plating south east QLD does not come cheap, so don't expect the QLD government to do much, if anything about the reef.

Hopefully our farmers will self manage their polluting ways and give some relief to the GBR.