Crown of Thorns over explosion

[zakai david]

Dear Coral list members,

Last week I was diving at the southern Gulf of Aqaba at the Tomas and
Jackson reefs. I was very surprise to observed that the reefs where eaten
by the Crown of Thorns starfish. I counted 25 starfish in 2 dives of 45 min
each, at noon time (the starfish is active in night time). Usually its very
rare to meet this starfish in the Gulf of Aqaba so i think that we
experiencing a over explosion of this Crown of Thorns in our area.
It haven't reached Eilat yet but it may do so soon. Is anyone have
experience in controlling such a phenomenon? Are there any action needed to
be done before its will reach our area.

Thanks David.
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   David Zakai,
   Red Sea marine biologist                Department of Life Science
   Nature Reserves Authority of Israel     Bar-Ilan University
   Eilat district, P.O.Box 667             Ramat-Gan
   Israel, 88105                           Israel, 52100

   Ph:+972-7-6373988                       +972-7-6360117
   Fax:+972-7-6375047                      +972-7-6375329
   Home:+972-7-6330373
                  Email: zakaid at popeye.cc.biu.ac.il
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