Crown-of-thorns Starfish

[brian_lassig at ccmail.gbrmpa.gov.au]

     In the last 18 months I have received reports of increasing  
     crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) numbers on quite a few Indo-Pacific  
     reefs from South Africa, Red Sea, Cocos (Keelings), northern Great  
     Barrier Reef, Malaysia, Indonesia, Fiji, Phillipines, Solomons and  
     Samoa.  Most of the reports are qualitative, but a number of the  
     population increases are sufficiently large to cause local concern and  
     warrant control efforts by managers and tourism operators.  

     The apparent synchrony of these population increases across oceanic  
     scales is interesting in terms of outbreak causality.  More detailed  
     quantitative information on the current (and historical) status of  
     COTS populations in the Indo-Pacific region would be extremely useful. 

     Any such information gratefully received. 

     Brian Lassig 
     COTS Program Coordinator, GBRMPA 
     brianl at gbrmpa.gov.au