The crown-of-thorns starfish has as many as 21 arms, no brain, and a thicket of quivering, venomous spines all over its body. For sustenance, it preys upon coral, munching on its stony polyps. The creature’s underside is dotted with “tube feet”, . As it perambulates across the coral, these feet reach out blindly, pulling off polyps like grapes from a stem.
The feeding habits of this starfish are far more dangerous even than its thorns. When there aren’t too many of them—say, fewer than six per acre—they don’t make a significant impact on coral. But when outbreaks happen, they feed faster than the coral can grow, devastating the reef.
This has been especially problematic in Australia’s iconic Great Barrier Reef…The post Saving the Great Barrier Reef Means Saying Goodbye to a Lot of Starfish appeared first on FeedBox.