Reef Rescue, small-scale

[dark horge]

Crown-of-Thorns Hunting 2003
this time at Maricaban Island, near Sepok point:

"Crown of Thorns" starfish (Acanthaster) are voracious corallivores. They will crawl over living coral (I know of no particular coral that they don't like) and eat all living tissue, leaving bare white skeleton in their wake. In sufficient numbers, they can kill large patches of reef in surprisingly little time, and have been responsible for significant reef decline in the Philippines in past decades.




Forgive the ugliness of my foot (it's just for size reference)
Most harvested are about this size, wit a few reaching 30cm across.
In the colder months (December-March) they appear in large numbers almost everywhere there is coral, then peter out somewhat in Summer.

Acanthaster are often referred to as "taeng kalabaw" (carabao poop), owing partly to the negative feelings of coastal folk towards them.




The biggest #@$%! (the Acanthaster, not me) this March
Breadth = 21 cm.




Sun-drying, prior to burning. It may be hard to discern, but a few crispy specimens drape the rock at upper right. They shrink quite a bit out of the water.

We caught and burned 74 such in 4 hours. Local kids (those experienced in avoiding the poisonous spines) were rewarded P50 per catch, with a grand prize of P500 and some school supplies (pens, notebooks, a picture book on marine ecosystems, a lunchbox and a thermos for soup, etc.) for bagging the heaviest specimen (dry weight). Note: $1 = P53

I would have won, but then the whole point was to help the local kids

So I hid this monster underwater, speared to a coral outcrop, until after the awarding, then had my wife shoot this pic. There were at least 7 large specimens tht were so wedged into the coral (under Porites lutea ledges) that we could not remove them. The kids cheerfully promised to hunt them down over the following weeks.

I gave TRT's URL, written down on the textbook as a sort of "easter egg", should they ever be able to afford internet time, so they could check this out.


A whole lot of other groups and individuals do this sort of thing,
all over the Philippines.

Now, TRT (via its Philippine section), has done it too.

[Prismaco]

Stupid question...but why would you kill them ??


-Paul

[dark horge]

My bad.
Thanks for pointing out the need for such information as follows:

Acanthaster plancii, aka "Crown of Thorns" starfish, are voracious corallivores. They will crawl over living coral (I know of no particular coral that they don't like) and eat all living tissue, leaving bare white skeleton in their wake. In sufficient numbers, they can kill large patches of reef in surprisingly little time.

I will include this small bit in the initial post

[Doug1]

Beacause they prey on corals, reproduce at hideous rates and leave a bare trail like army ants

[dark horge]

Yikes, simultaneous replies!

[Doug1]

well I try Horge

[Alice]

Thanks, Horge, for including us!

Next time the kids go on a Crown of Thorns round up, give us some advance notice, maybe we can send over some things they would like as prizes!

Alice

[grazzit]

Ya know this sounds like a noble thing, but I can't help but feel that slaughtering a species isn't good.

[dark horge]

Grazzit

Three points I want to skim through:

1. These stars are not being driven to extinction. On the contrary, they are a persistent, and increasing, seasonal problem. Back when reefs were healthier, maybe we could adopt a hands-off, "let's respect nature" attitude. But if we did that now, there would be whole reefs suppressed to minimal levels of coral density, if not reduced to zero outright. The seasonal influx of these stars has gotten progressively worse and worse since the mid 70's, though its effects have been markedly reduced since the late 80's, when Filipino environmentalists started culling, catching them early. The "source" populations of these stars are still out there in deeper, cooler water, where we can't/don't bother them. We may be removing more and more of them from the shallows, before they can inflict serious damage, but the fact remains that there's generally more and more of them to remove every year.


2. These stars are a serious danger to the unwitting and the uninitiated. The spines are loaded with a toxin that produces truly excruciating pain. Many small Filipino children and even adult tourists have died because they stepped on one of these stars. Even if somehow, these stars did not kill corals (which are the source of much-needed tourism dollars), they would remain a serious, venomous threat to unsuspecting tourists and locals, and would have to be managed aggressively


3. A dead coral reef is very vulnerable to storm action. The physical destruction of the reef means less cover for fishes, and therefore less fish for a fishing family's table and income. That sort of hopeless poverty is what drives some of them to desperate, illegal fishing techniques, like resorting to cyanide or blast-fishing. We want fisherfolk to work aggressively at keeping the reefs fat and healthy.

Now...
I do not thoroughly understand why there is such a growing excess of these stars the past few decades (Maybe the large gastropods that prey on them are dying out? Climate shift?). I however DO believe that if we Filipinos had not intervened these past 20 years, there wouldn't be much reef left today for fishes, fisherfolk, hobbyists, tourists, or even those ravenous stars.


Your concern though, is very much appreciated.
Mindfulness of individual species,
no matter how "undesirable",
is the right frame of mind!


horge


P.S. Alice, maybe next time I'll bring a TRT banner for the kids to hold up for a group pic. As usual, I was so busy organizing and playing referee there was no time for pics until almost everyone had left (look at the pics: it's already a dim sky, very late in the afternoon).

[Mrs Smith]

Thanks for the story Horge! Yep, those stars are nasty... emedicine.com has a review article focusing on treatment of their stings - not that they're that common here in landlocked Kansas, but you never know who might have been exposed to one.

Danielle

[Geoff]

do they have a natural predator?

mean looking dudes, i would not like to eat one.

G~

[Mrs Smith]

Maybe a suggestion for a future Iron Chef? They'll eat anything!

[Prismaco]

Or maybe Yan Can Cook....Or give it to Emirel and he'll BAM!!! it up for you...


-Paul

[Spanky]

That is one ugly foot!

[binylee]

This is so educational. Please post us more update... of course with more pictutes....