Coral reefs can get cancer too!
By most people’s standards, the Crown Of Thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) is ugly. They can have up to 18 arms, can crow up to half a meter in diameter and are covered with long, venomous spines.
Crown of Thorns (COT) starfish are found on coral reefs in the tropics ranging from the Red Sea, throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is a coral eating starfish which can destroy vast areas of hard coral reefs within just a couple of month.
Worldwide, coral reefs are facing the danger of COT outbreaks. As famous places as the Great Barrier Reef of Australia or the coastline of Sharm-el-Sheikh in the Red Sea have not yet recovered from outbreaks in the late 1990s. It is believed that the main reasons for the regular explosions in population is the nutrition rich water due to pollution and also the collection of their main predators, the Triton snail (Charonia tritonis) with its beautiful shell, which you find nowadays almost only in souvenir shops.
The authorities of Egypt, Australia and other nations tried literally everything to get rid off the COT but the ony methods that work are either to inject them with a poison or to collect them and bury them on land.
All reefs in Malaysia are under threat and the reefs on our dive sites are unfortunately no exemption. B&J is organizing 5 or more events annually to collect this coral eating cancer. The local Marine Park of Tioma Island also organizes one collection per year where most dive centre on the island participate. With this annual project and our own collections during the whole season we try to keep our reefs healthy and alive.
When we go out for our events we have anything from 10 to 30 volunteers to help us and we need YOU for our next events! We usually collect them in groups of 3 to 4 divers, whereas 2 more experienced divers are responsible for collecting the COT while the others act as spotters and to carry the net bags. The collected COT will be counted and then buried in the sand.
When collecting the Crown of Thorns we have to pay special attention not to get stung by them, since their spines contain potent venom. A sting leads to pain and if not treated properly to bad infections. First aid treatment is hot water to neutralize the venom so whenever we go out to collect COT we make sure to have hot water on board.
We invite all divers to join us on the program for the coming years. All participants get diving at cost price and a wall certificate.
If you like to know more about COT and how to conduct COT reef cleanups, read the interesting COT Best Practice for Clean ups guide.
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