Killing giant starfish will help save the Great Barrier Reef, boffins have said.
The Crown-of-Thorns species of them eat coral.
They chomp through 108 sq ft of it every year.
The large starfish can grow up to three feet long and can have up to 21 arms.
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Their most distinct feature is the rows of toxic pines that cover their arms – which can cause injuries.
However, scientists are now culling the deadly starfish in an effort to save the Great Barrier Reef.
It comes after a study showed that killing off these animals can help the reef recover coral coverage significantly.
The team of scientists, led by researcher, Samuel Matthews, put their theory to the test by focusing on several areas in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
In warmer parts of the reef, there are more Crown-of-Thorns outbreaks, as reported on Need To Know.
This is because it is the ideal environment for starfish larvae to grow.
Scientists killed the starfish with vinegar or ox bile.
This also prevented the animals from producing larvae in the water.
Researchers culled the starfish across 500 of the 3,000 reefs across the Great Barrier Reef between 2012 and 2022.
They found that in the areas where they killed the starfish, the reefs had a 44% increase in coral coverage.
But in non-culling areas nearby, coral was continuing to be lost.
Crown-of-Thorns outbreaks can last between 10 and 15 years.
This first occurrence was thought to be in 1962.
The study reads: “Strategic management interventions, such as pest and pollution management are becoming increasingly necessary to mitigate damage and assist the recovery of many ecosystems, including the Great Barrier Reef.
”The rapid increase in frequency and severity of recurrent disturbances has made resilience-based management (RBM) key to steering coral reefs through the Anthropocene.”
It adds: “The demonstrated effectiveness of the Program in protecting coral at reef and regional scales (i.e. sectors) solidifies it as an effective tool to enhance Reef resilience.
”The effectiveness and efficiency of the Program will continue to increase if there is sustained investment in expanded control resources and research to develop new tools for monitoring, and culling, and our knowledge of COTS, their ecology, and outbreak dynamics improves.
”Recent, long-term funding commitments by the Australian Government will allow the Program to continue operations through to the end of the decade.”
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