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PRESENT RESEARCH
39. What is being done at present to understand the crown-of-thorns starfish phenomenon? Since late 1985 the Federal Government has provided about $A2.5 million for a coordinated research program on the crown-of-thorns starfish. Both the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority also have contributed a large amount of support to this research. The present program involves much innovative research and is a large multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional effort. About 70 scientists from throughout Australia are collaborating in 58 different projects. Those which are management-related are being coordinated by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority while the mainly ecological projects (see Fig. 15) are being coordinated by the Australian Institute of Marine Science.
The program is designed to build on the research findings of the past and to advance our understanding of the phenomenon by investigating a broad range of scientific questions. We think that this strategy has the greatest potential for unravelling the complex nature of the phenomenon. Some of the ecological projects include using new techniques for developing larvae in situ (ie. on a reef) and for investigating dispersal and settlement processes; using electrophoretic techniques for testing hypotheses relating to larval dispersal; developing monoclonal antibodies for crown-of-thorns larvae so that they can be distinguished from other starfish larvae in samples; studying the recovery of coral and fish communities after outbreaks; investigating the large-scale pattern of recruitment of juvenile starfish; and exploring the possibilities of using photographs taken from satellites (Landsat and SPOT imagery) for determining the effects of starfish outbreaks on the Great Barrier Reef. Others are using mathematical approaches to understand the crown-of-thorns starfish phenomenon. Data for these applications are continually being compiled, particularly on the distribution and abundance of the starfish and its coral prey. Within the management-related group of projects there are new geological studies which are concerned with investigating the occurrence of starfish skeletal material in reef sediments. Other projects involve determining the efficacy of starfish control and the potential for biological controls, obtaining oral records of starfish abundance on the Great Barrier Reef over this century, undertaking a risk analysis of the phenomenon and investigating predation on the adult stages of the crown-of-thorns starfish. Whilst the main objective of the current program is to determine the cause or causes of the outbreaks, a more immediate goal is to focus scientific attention on establishing which questions are most likely to lead to this being achieved. Our understanding of this complex biological and ecological problem in the future rests largely on the results which are beginning to flow from this program.
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