Crown of Thorns Sea Star!

[neopluredon]

he definitely deserves help.. the place deserves help...

thanks for posting. i suggest pasting contact details of nearby resorts so we could visit and help too

 

[Rogersea]

I am hoping that you might find the below links informative if you are interested in the COT's. Pay particular attention the very end of the second article which helps dispel some old wives tales...


Acanthaster planci

AIMS Crown-of-Thorns Starfish - Reproduction

Cheers,
Roger

 

[Karl_H]

TELL THE CHINESE!!!! TELL THE CHINESE!!!!

where's dingho when you need him???

TELL THE CHINESE!!!!

Jag

Jag - looks like someone has taken your advise on this one - see link below, you should get some commision

BBC News - Chinese medicine market sought for cane toad poison

Karl

 

[kosmonooit]

Dont know if its been mentioned here but there is a Discovery doc on COT's off Australia Great Barrier Reef "Crown of Thorns Starfish Monster from the Shallows" - real insight. I found it on torrent *cough* dont know where else you will see it because its Discovery HD

It was shown that all the limbs have to be injected with poison to take it out. And also the finding of the scientist (a german lady) was that population explosion was a result of nutrient run off from the land causing algae levels which meant that the infant COT's survived at a much higher rate. The increased nutrients was said to orignate from fertilisers used in plantations. Previous there had been blooms but they came and went, and were part of a natural cycle which helped keep some of the faster growing corals in check, but now there are so many and they just keep coming. Grim.

 

[Chuck SS]

The ways to eradicate unwanted species are many and varied and here's a couple notes on the COT: One hunt for them at night, or best, in the very early AM as you'll find many more than during the day as someone pointed out. I favor the Japanese Beetle approach--we had neighbors who used pesticides and that works somewhjat but has a lot of problems associated with it from food chain to breathing the dust. We on the other hand, hand picked them off each day, for several days and had no more problems that season. The COTs can be approached in the same method but it takes a dedicated and somewhat prolonged effort for any given area. Just reread the entire thread and wanted to comment on a couple of other subjects touched upon herein: Frist forest fires. We do have completely natural fires in relatively untouched areas when very little human presence is found. They are generally smaller, and shorter fires. The bulk though, and I might add, the most severe in size and duration are due to humans, not lightning. Sure the lightning might be the starter but that's just one small point in time as far as a forest fire's life and destruction goes. Add two much slash left lying around, or not harvesting bettle killed trees or bark damaged trees due to an earlier fire and you have the makings of a disaster for both the ecosystem and humans alike. Same goes with reels and the COT and damage caused.

The method of carrying them that we found best was using a floating ball and stringer behind and well away from the diver. Poke a hole through them, string them and when you get a half dozen or so, load them into the boat, or take out on shore.

Good COT picking folks!

 

[Centrals]

Several yrs ago I was diving at Gen San for the first time. We took John's boat with Paul(South Point) to Maasim and Chapter. I noticed John was wearing gloves and carried a small garden digger before jumping into the water!!!! They had removed two crates of COT from both sites. I did chipped in a few but it was hard work with a tree branch.

What are COT commom predators? Thanks in advance

 

[Hammerhead]

Just a thought, but does anyone have any idea how these hardy lil' ****ers would fare in deep water? Strikes me that if they are a shallow water feeder, there'd be a decent chance that their evolutionary make up wouldn't take it too well. In the Phils, anyway, there's a lot of locations to collect the buggers up, motor out a click or two and dispose of the mofos permanently.

Probably completely wrong again, but then, I am married, so no change there.

 

[Hank49]

Just a thought, but does anyone have any idea how these hardy lil' ****ers would fare in deep water? Strikes me that if they are a shallow water feeder, there'd be a decent chance that their evolutionary make up wouldn't take it too well. In the Phils, anyway, there's a lot of locations to collect the buggers up, motor out a click or two and dispose of the mofos permanently.

Probably completely wrong again, but then, I am married, so no change there.

Interesting concept.
If you dumped them in say......500 meter deep water, how could you follow up monitor and see if they lived, died or moved back into the shallows?
If you lowered a cage down with a couple, you could retrieve it and see if they survived. But that wouldn't tell you what they would do if turned loose down there.
We used to dig a pit and bury them on Boracay. (1999)

 

[Babydamulag]

I recently read an article that some fishermen in the coastal towns of China are drying COTS then pulverizing them into a powder. The powder is mixed with milk and then they drink it. It is like VIAGRA on steroids apparently. Finally, a use for COTS!!!




Hey....I keep tryin'