[RobG]

http://animal.discovery.com/news/afp...49.84613553719

[Ninong]

Cool facts (according to Animal Planet):

"Cool Facts: A single starfish can eat up to 13 square miles of coral per year. To feed, they climb on top of the coral polyp, extrude their stomach, then release digestive enzymes to liquify the tissue, which is then absorbed." http://animal.discovery.com/news/afp...49.84613553719


True facts (according to the Australian Institute of Marine Science):

"Crown-of-thorns starfish have been estimated to consume about 5-6 m2 of coral tissue per year. Like many other starfish, it may survive without feeding for up to 9 months. During such times it is thought to live off energy reserves stored within its body." http://www.aims.gov.au/pages/reflib/...s/cot-q20.html


There is a slight difference between 13 square miles and 5-6 square meters. The highest estimate that I can find is 6-12 square meters per year per starfish specimen and that is given by Prof. Dr. Yuri I. Sorokin, University of Queensland.



Here is another excerpt from that article (quoting a GBR starfish control officer):

"McKenzie said researchers believe that when a severe drought affecting eastern Australia breaks, as expected in March or April, the rains will wash large amounts of parched but nutrient-rich soil into the reef area, providing a food bonanza for the starfish.

"There's going to be a very high nutrient load, meaning more crown of thorns will survive than normal because there'll be more food for them," McKenzie said.

Divers patrolling the reefs are already seeing lots of juvenile crown of thorns.

It would have been nice if the author had bothered to explain, for the benefit of the general public, how an increased nutrient load provides a food bonanza for the crown-of-thorns starfish, which feeds exclusively on scleractians. The starfish's larvae feed on plankton and the increased nutrient load would increase the population of plankton, which would allow more starfish larvae to survive. Also, as the starfish population increases, it reduces the population of scleractian polyps that are available to consume starfish larvae, allowing the starfish population to explode.

The other thing that I think is misleading about this article is that it gives the impression that this is a recent discovery. There was a major Acanthaster outbreak in the 1960's and it has been a problem off and on for decades.







Sometimes I wonder if any of these geniuses that write this stuff received their early training at National Enquirer.