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More than 250,000 crown-of-thorns starfish have been removed from the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland in the past two years, Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt says.
The pest is considered to be one of the biggest threats to the reef and has traditionally been hard to destroy.
In recent decades, the crown-of-thorns starfish has been responsible for 42 per cent of coral loss on the Great Barrier Reef.
Mr Entsch says divers in the north Queensland city had been able to cull more than 1000 crown of thorns starfish on a 40-minute dive.
“This includes 27,000 in just eight days at Arlington reef and 9000 at Batt reef, as well as 14,000 at Spitfire reef near Cooktown,” Mr Entsch said.
Mr Hunt said the killer injection, and funding for a second control vessel, had greatly boosted the fight against the coral destroying starfish.
He said pollution and run-off entering the reef had led to an explosion in numbers of the pest, causing considerable damage to the reef.
“In recent decades crown of thorns starfish have been responsible for 42 per cent of coral loss on the Great Barrier Reef,” he said.
Researchers say a crown of thorns starfish outbreak can destroy 40 to 90 per cent of the corals on a reef, with the pest causing more damage to the icon than bleaching in the past 50 years.
Agencies/Canadajournal
