he Great Barrier Reef has lost half of its coral in the last 27 years

[Pittsburgh]

Crown-of-thorns starfish seems to be causing quite a bit of it, along with recent storms.

The Great Barrier Reef has lost half its coral cover in the last 27 years. The loss was due to storm damage (48%), crown of thorns starfish (42%), and bleaching (10%) according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today by researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in Townsville and the University of Wollongong.

The Great Barrier Reef has lost half of its coral in the last 27 years

 

[faisal629]

just read this

 

[faisal629]

The research shows that the reef could rebuild itself in 20-30 years despite the cyclones and bleaching, if the starfish population died back.

lets go hunt some starfish:uzi:*

 

[Roadki11]

I saw that this morning too. Bummer.

 

[schlosser_jr30]

That is so depressing. Nature will usually bounce back. That darn starfish needs a natural predator. Any volunteers?

 

[Pittsburgh]

Here's some data on these starfish from wikipedia:

An individual starfish can consume up to 6 square metres (65 sq ft) of living coral reef per year. In a study of feeding rates on two coral reefs in the Central Great Barrier Reef region, it was found that large starfish (40 cm and greater diameter) killed approximately 161 cm²/day in winter and 357–478 cm²/day in summer. Smaller starfish 20–39 cm killed 155 and 234 cm²/day in the equivalent seasons. The area killed by the large starfish is equivalent to about 10 square metres (110 sq ft) from these observations.

 

[clowntrigger4]

The Caribbean has lost over 80% of its coral and it does not have the crown of thorn starfish.

 

[shred5]

Storms really don't hurt a reef unless they wash sediment from land into the ocean. Storms will break the coral up into frags and also provides new areas for new coral to grow. Bleaching is what bothers me and the ocean becoming more acidic.

 

[RiddleEagle18]

The Caribbean has lost over 80% of its coral and it does not have the crown of thorn starfish.

Largely do to the loss of the longspine urchin. Efforts to reintroduce the species are going well. They are able to reproduce in captivity

 

[knukles55]

To top it off massive oil spills from (purposly misspelled) TP doesnt help