![]() ![]() In 2018, the researchers deployed starfish-killing robots to manage the Great Barrier Reef’s starfish population. In 2015, crews killed 350,000 starfish, but somewhere between 4 to 12 million in total live in the Great Barrier Reef, per the Washington Post. So far, experts have tried to cull wild populations by injecting them with vinegar or bile salts, or by removing and destroying the starfish one at a time. The new study sheds light on new possibilities in crown-of-thorns starfish management. The team found Crown-of-thorn spine fragments in fish poop. But it’s the living adults that inflict the damage-per Allison Hirschlag of the Washington Post, 30 crown-of-thorns starfish on two-and-a-half acres can kill the coral on an entire reef. ![]() Dozens of coral fish had been identified as predators of the starfishes’ sperm, very young starfish, or were observed dining on dead or almost-dead adults, according to the paper. ![]() The only well-known predator of adult crown-of-thorns starfish was the Pacific triton, a giant sea snail that hunts by injecting venom. “I thought we were looking for a needle in a haystack.” “Just the fact that we found DNA of crown-of-thorns in fish poo to begin with was surprising to me!” Kroon tells Science News. The team identified 30 fish from 18 species that had chowed down on a crown-of-thorns starfish in recent days, according to their paper published on May 18 in the journal Scientific Reports. Rather than try to catch mealtime in action, the team targeted food’s inevitable result: poop. A team of researchers led by Australian Institute of Marine Science biologist Frederieke Kroon set out to identify which fish have thorny stars on the menu, Jake Beuhler writes for Science News. Compounding on that damage, the crown-of-thorns starfish is the world’s most fertile invertebrate, with large females laying more than 200 million eggs in a season.īut scientists have noticed that while some reefs face periodic plagues of the crown-of-thorns starfish, in other areas, the coral killer’s population is naturally kept in-check. When their numbers get out of control, coral reefs suffer massive losses in one year, a single starfish can eat 20 to 32 feet of coral. Crown-of-thorns starfish are coral-eating creatures that can have more than a dozen legs and grow to 30 inches across. ![]()
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