Wildlife

Great Barrier Reef Rescue Plan

A giant starfish-eating snail could be unleashed to help save the Great Barrier Reef, officials said on Monday, with a trial underway to breed thousands of the rare species.

Predatory crown-of-thorns starfish, which munch coral, are naturally-occurring, but have proliferated due to pollution and agricultural run-off at the struggling World Heritage-listed ecosystem. Their impact has been profound with a major study of the 2 300km long reef's health in 2012 showing coral cover halved over the past 27 years, with 42% of the damage attributed to the pest.

Now Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) research has shown they avoid areas where the Pacific triton sea snail - also known as the giant triton - is present. The snails - which can grow to half a metre - have a well developed sense of smell and can hunt their prey by scent alone. Research showed they were particularly fond of crown-of-thorns, but only eat a few each week, and with the snail almost hunted to extinction for their shells, there are not many left.

This led the Australian government to on Monday announce funding to research breeding them, the ultimate aim to deploy them to control the crown-of-thorns pest.