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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: 5dave22 who wrote (133533)	2/24/2001 3:31:27 PM
From: Jim McMannis	Respond to of 1580032

RE:"Have you ever dove Indonesia? I dove some islands off Sulawesi, unbelievable reefs. Unfortunately, there are a couple of types of fish being overfished, the only predators of the crown of thorn starfish. Consequently, crown of thorns (ugly beasts) are decimating the area. Worse part is, when you try to pick up, or kill one of them, they release innumerable eggs. Vicious cycle" No, but I've run into a few crown of thorns other places in the pacific. In the early 80's there was a great deal of concern about "Ancanthaster planci" (crown of thorns starfish) in the western pacific. Divers were even injecting them with formalahyde to kill them. Last I heard this was a cyclical occurance and populations had dropped. If I can recall they have a few natural enemies, one was the triton trumpet, "Charonia tritonis"(a large snail prized for it's shell) and the other was kind of shrimp. As you suggested there may be some fishes or invertebrates that prey on the eggs or larval stages. A reduction in either of the species would take reduce those limiting factors. There has been some recent work suggesting outbreaks of A. planci are cyclically related to sedimentation/nutrient runoff from high islands after typhoons... Of course, the runoff of nutrients has increased with the agricutural exploitation of the land...by you know who... Jim