HUMAN INTERVENTION PLAYS A ROLE

Not only have we caused great damage by controlling “pests” (a case in point: Silent Spring), but we also cause certain species to be the “pests” we call them now. A timely example is the case of the crown-of-thorns.

CROWN-OF-THORNS STARFISH

We are losing our corals fast, and a species of starfish is one of the reasons why. The crown-of-thorns starfish resembles Jesus’ headpiece with slight differences – it has toxin-tipped thorns and up to 21 arms.

In just a year, one starfish can eat 10 square meters of coral and produce up to 50 million eggs. In 1985, the Australian Institute of Marine Science estimated that 42% of the loss of corals in the Great Barrier Reef could be linked to crown-of-thorns.

This number has since increased to over 50%.

WHY DO CORAL REEFS MATTER?

Think of coral reefs as underwater rainforests: they sustain an amazing diversity of life, prevent erosion, and lessen the impact of storms and tsunamis to nearby areas. Today, we’ve already lost half of this natural resource. And by 2050, 90% of the world’s corals will be dead. When the corals die, so might the marine life we know.

THE GIANT TRITON

The hardy starfish has a natural predator, which is the giant triton. The giant triton is a large marine snail that consumes the crown-of-thorns whole, unaffected by the starfish’s toxic thorns. Due to the harvesting of these snails – mostly for their shells – crownof-thorns grew in abundance, leading to the coral reef destruction happening since 1980s until today.

SOUVENIRS OVER CORALS

For decorative shells, we destroyed the balance in our reefs. Crown-of-thorns is seen as a pest now, but had humans not needlessly killed giant tritons for their shells, up to half of the coral reef destruction could’ve been prevented – and crown-ofthorns wouldn’t have been “pests”.