Every year, over a million tourists visit the Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of north-eastern Australia. The Great Barrier Reef is not one reef, but a long group of 2,900 reefs of living coral "and 900 islands. It is over 2,600 kilometers from north to south, and it's a wonderful place. But it also has a problem. The Crown of Thorns starfish live all along the Great Barrier Reef and feed on corals. Sometimes, the population of these starfish in an area can grow quickly, and they eat the coral faster than it can grow and reproduce. People fear that the Crown of Thorns could destroy large parts of the reef completely.
A major outbreak of the Crown of Thorns starfish have been found eating the Great Barrier Reef, scientists said on Friday, urging the government to begin removing the harmful animals.
The starfish feeds on corals by spreading its stomach over them and using digestive enzymes to make them die. The Crown of Thorns gets its name from the sharp pines', or "thorns", that cover it. The starfish usually grow about 30 centimeters wide, but some are as large as 80 centimeters wide. "Each starfish can eat its own size in coral a night and so over time that increases very greatly." Hugh Sweatman, a scientist told the media "A lot of coral will be lost" he said. That would be a great influence on the ecosystem and the moneymaking tourism industry.
The Crown of Thorns were found in large number last month in the Swains Reefs, but the government's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority already killed some starfish at the Swains Reefs in December and will start another action this month, a director at the authority. Fred Nucifora, told the ABC. "We are actually difficult reach to the Swains Reef and it is quite an unfriendly environment to work in," he said.
There have been four major Crown of Thorns outbreaks since the 1960 in the Great Barrier Reef but it recovered each time because there were always healthy populations of fish that fed on grass. The outbreaks are usually triggered by extra nutrient in the water but the reason for the recent breakout was unclear, Sweatman said.
