A giant starfish-eating snail could be unleashed to help save the Great Barrier Reef, officials said Monday, with a trial underway to breed thousands of the rare species.
Predatory crown-of-thorns starfish, which munch coral, are naturally-occurring but have proliferated due to pollution and agricultural run-off at the struggling World Heritage-listed ecosystem.
Their impact has been profound with a major study of the 2,300-kilometre (1,400-mile) long reef's health in 2012 showing coral cover halved over the past 27 years, with 42 percent of the damage attributed to the pest.
Now Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) research has shown they avoid areas where the Pacific triton sea snail—also known as the giant triton—is present.
The snails—which can grow to half a metre—have a well developed sense of smell and can hunt their prey by scent alone.
Research showed they were particularly fond of crown-of-thorns, but only eat a few each week, and with the snail almost hunted to extinction for their shells, there are not many left.
The snails are expected to move quickly to counter the starfish.
(Score: 2) by arslan on Tuesday September 19 2017, @07:49AM (1 child)
I'd recommend finding a video of the this if you can. Saw it locally here in our news channel. I think it was sped up video but it was a really entertaining watch. I was mesmerized and kinda horrified at the same time..
(Score: 2, Interesting) by pinchy on Tuesday September 19 2017, @11:00PM
Heres a GBR video showing a timelapse over 18 months
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j35mHTksN9E [youtube.com]
Near the end they rewind it back and forth to show the change.