Crown of Thorns Sea Star!

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Gen San Chris

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Location
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Here in Sarangani Bay, General Santos City we have a constant problem with Crown of Thorns! In the area which we dive mostly we manage to keep them in check but other areas which are not dived so much get ravaged all the time!
About 5 years ago the Rotary Club of Metro Dadiangas carried out an irradication project where local people were paid with rice! 20 C of T's got them 1 kg rice, for every 100 C of T's they also got a tin of fish! In 3 months they got 126,000 C of T''s from the area! A great effort!
Just now, John Heitz (Jr Divemaster) is funding such a project paying p3 for each C of T's! and in less than one week over 1,600 have been removed from the water!
In other areas of Sarangani Bay where the C of T's are plentyful other people and local governments are discussing what to do about such problems, sometimes the cost of such a meeting can cost thousands of peso's so why do they not take the lead from John and pay the local people to get then, it will be the cheapest way and give income to the people!
John will not be happy me writing this as he is a quiet guy but I think he deserves a bit of recognition for his help with the environment!
 
Kudos to John for initiating positive action! And kudos to you, too, Chris, for all your help improving the marine environment, as well as the (human) lives of those around you. It was a great pleasure meeting and diving with you! :)
 
I like the idea of 3 pesos each. What did they do with starfish afterwards? Bury them? Dry them out?
 
They have programs each year in Boracay in which alot of diveshops take place in. We offered free diving to customers who wanted to help us that day. The news was there covering the events, then party time afterwards. Good times.

(They burned then buried the stars.)
 
Hmmm... Humans intervening in ecosystems to suit their fancy... Where have I seen this before???:cool2::cool2::rofl3::rofl3:

I'm just kidding guys!!!!:D I perfectly understand why these measures have been put in place and I don't have a problem with it at all!:coffee: As long as the measures stop once the populations of crown of thorns are well under control. Which I'm sure they will since who would want to keep paying if they are no longer a nuissance!!??:D

Just keep in mind that the crown of thorns are a natural and important part of the reef ecosystem. They are not a "problem" for the reef, but rather for how humans want to exploit reefs for ecotourism. If we left them alone, the reef would do just fine, although it would be much less pretty for us divers!:D


Just food for thought! Cheers!:coffee:
 
It is important to realise that we are not talking about just a few cots here that would normally naturally live on a reef. Rtaher, this relates to hundreds/several thousands of cots that typically move in large colonies either along the coast or across the sea bed.

Colonies appear very quickly and in vast numbers. Once the reach a coral reef, they typically head straight for acropora coral (inparticular shallow table corals) then work their way back down the reef destroying virtually everything on the way. We have witnessed reefs picked clean by cots (less than 10% live coral remaining) and a decimated marine life. This can take place over a very short period of time dependant upon cots numbers and coral cover.

Besides providing a thriving marine life habitat, live coral provides protection for fish & marine life, egg laying and for fry to grow/be protected. As we are all aware, most coral marine life uses protective resemblance which relies upon colourful live coral growth or will use coral for protection. In turn, the small stuff attracts larger fish which in turn attracts pelagics.

There is much speculation as to what causes outbreaks - global warming, pollution, la nina, el nino - etc, but the fact remains that there are severe cots outbreaks and that the balance of marine life has been adversely affected in many areas.

Just leaving large colonies of cots to devastate reefs causes severe damage to the entire marine ecosystem which can take reefs decades (or longer) to regrow. This has a high human cost; coastal communities which depend upon subsistence fishing suffer terribly by being unable to catch enough fish off their nearby reefs to support their families.

In many instances, this means that fishermen must travel further out to sea with increased fuel costs and great personal risk. It is a fact that many fishermen die at sea every year in the pursuit of fish that they traditionally fished close to their shoreline.

Losing the bread winner/head of the family has a devastating impact on local communities. We have witnessed this ourselves in the more remote areas where fishing is the only option that people have to feed themselves.

So, this is not so much about ecotourism as about peoples livelihoods and traditional ways of life.

We admire John for his correct, considered and effective approach. This not only removes the cots to protect reefs, but it preserves ways of life, gives an incentive for fishing communities to do this and educates local people in reef conservation.

We are sure that this can be replicated in many areas with some funding, coordination and commitment.

From our point of view, it is sad that this is normally left to a few private individuals who genuinely care for the environmetn to organise cot removal, rather than the government department whose duty is to protect the marine environment.

Further to this, we could really do with some help from Manila based divers. We sourced/bought a state of the art cot gun from N J Phillips in Australia NJ Phillips :: Food Services Products

The gun delivers a measured amount of seawater mixed with sodium bisulfate via a long spear needle (for getting at cots in holes/under large tables, etc). The chemical is not harmful to corals and kills cots immediately - allegedly before they are able to release their distress hormone which is though to trigger egg release.

For more information on the guns, please see;

http://njphillips.com/pdfs/marine/20ml Metal COTS.pdf and http://njphillips.com/leaflets/QL558.pdf

Sodium bisulfate (aka sodium hydrogen sulfate) is used as an acidity regulator in swimming pools. We are finding this chemical hard to source in Mindanao, but know that there are companies which will stock this in Manila. We wonder if somebody can help us make a contact with a supplier there? This would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
 
Hi BD, When we harvest the C of T's we are very cruel and drowned them! Not really, they get dried out and burried or just left to dry out!
The local payment method is a simple way to get rid of the then and there, having organized dives to collect them is also good as long as the C of T's appear at the correct time for collection as they can do lots of damage if they have to wait for the correct collection day!
If divers just donated the cost of a single drink each time they dive then funds would quickly accumulate and local people would benifit from this collection!

Death to Crown of Thorns!
Long Live the Atlantic Lion Fish!
 
I like the idea of 3 pesos each. What did they do with starfish afterwards? Bury them? Dry them out?
126,000 CoTs???

spread a rumor in the chinese community that eating crown of thorns enhances virility...

in about 6 months CoTs will be on the endangered species list...

Jag
 
This has a high human cost; coastal communities which depend upon subsistence fishing suffer terribly by being unable to catch enough fish off their nearby reefs to support their families.

You are very right on this as well as it's not just for ecotourism. It has a high impact on the poeple who depend on the reef and that's pretty much the only reason I understand and have no problem with these measures. Now if the local fishermen were all driving BMW and had luxury mansions, that would be another story...:rofl3: But it's obvious that many many Philipino people depend on this for their modest livelyhoods so as far as I'm concerned, intervene away...:coffee::coffee::coffee:

But nevertheless, the crown of thorns serves it's purpose in marine ecosystems! The so called "ravages" by these guys can also be viewed as clearing the way for colonization by new organisms and coral which actually stimulates productivity of well established reefs as well as an increase in biodiversity! It's kind of the same thing as forest fires! People think they are a disaster. When in fact, from an ecological viewpoint, they play an essential part in the ecological cycle! They clear out the dominant species that have a stranglehold on the ecological assemblage (the community of species living there) such as pine and fir tree, leaving the path for a multitude of colonising species to come in and have their turn in their place. The community then evolves and eventually the dominant species come back and take over again, until the next forest fire. It's a natural cycle. Ecosystems are continually changing and evolving. Humans by putting out the forest fires (either because it's destroying resources or threatening human lives) are stopping this natural cycle. But it's understandable since the impact on humans is so great. And the same thing goes for the crown of thorns. They are the reefs forestfire, which from a natural standpoint, is probably good for the reefs in the long run! They are a nuissance for man, but they aren't a plague as some describe them to be.:cool2:

Anyways, as I said before, I understand the need to intervene and I also think the measures that were taken were important and the government should step up and do this themselves. After all it's benefitting their people and their income tax!!!!!:cool2:

Cheers!:coffee:
 
They are the reefs forestfire, which from a natural standpoint, is probably good for the reefs in the long run! They are a nuissance for man, but they aren't a plague as some describe them to be.

Do you happen to be a cot expert? If so, then you will know of Dr T Goreau and Dr A Bos?

Dr Bos is an expert on starfish and is based in Davao for research. Dr Goreau is widely recognised as on of the World experts on coral reef ecosystems (hard corals).

We have dived with them both and they both take a diffent view from you. Most recently, we spent a few days with Dr Goreau in Davao del Sur where he spent much of his time removing cots from table corals.

Please can you send some links regarding you research please so that I can run this by them.

Thanks
 

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