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posted by martyb on Tuesday September 19 2017, @06:49AM   Printer-friendly
from the insert-Lisa-SImpson-quip-here dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 19 2017, @08:48AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 19 2017, @08:48AM (#570119)

    "when wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death."

    "Oh, our plan was perfect. It's just that we didn't expect global warming to get in the way."

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  • (Score: 2) by Snow on Tuesday September 19 2017, @02:43PM

    by Snow (1601) on Tuesday September 19 2017, @02:43PM (#570195) Journal

    That's where North Korea and nuclear winter comes in.