The crown-of-thorns starfish.
The crown-of-thorns starfish. Photo: Supplied
ENVIRONMENT Minister Tony Burke will consider proposals to expand the culling of crown-of-thorns starfish in the wake of a startling report that found the coral predators had helped strip away half the Great Barrier Reef in recent decades.
Mr Burke told The Age yesterday he was ''enthusiastic'' about looking at new ways to combat outbreaks of the starfish, whose numbers have swelled after the Queensland floods of 2010.
A landmark study published yesterday by scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science found that half of the reef's coral had disappeared in the past 27 years and less than a quarter could remain by 2022.
Some 42 per cent of the damage had been caused by crown-of-thorns starfish, which eat the coral, the study found. The finding prompted calls for action yesterday, including a proposal by maverick Queensland MP Bob Katter for a $10 bounty on crown-of-thorns starfish.
''I have been really impressed by the way this program has been running in the far north … and I am enthusiastic about proposals to examine,'' he said.In June, Mr Burke gave the Queensland tourism industry $1.4 million for a 12-month culling program, under which divers kill starfish one-by-one, using acid-loaded spears. He praised the success of that program yesterday and said he'd listen to further proposals.
Colin McKenzie, head of the Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators, which runs that program, said the starfish were ''like a locust plague'' but added that with an extra $2 million a year, the culling program could be expanded with an extra 15 divers. ''The numbers are out of control in a lot of areas on the reef and we need to do something about those,'' he said. Improving water quality is the longer term solution - but in the short term, reducing starfish numbers was ''the ideal way'', he said.