Taiwan battles invasive starfish at Dongsha Atoll National Park
台灣在東沙環礁國家公園與入侵海星奮戰
Over 1,800 'locust like' crown-of-thorns starfish removed from protected wildlife area
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A cleanup has removed 1,840 invasive starfish from the Dongsha Atoll National Park. The National Park Service (NPS) said on Wednesday (July 10) it carried out a crown-of-thorns starfish removal from the protected wildlife area, per CNA. The NPS said that with the help of Academia Sinica and National Sun Yat-sen University teams, it was able to estimate the scale of the starfish invasion, which covers an approximately four-kilometer stretch of the atoll. The parks service said the outbreak was discovered in March in the southwestern part of the atoll, and a team of volunteer divers was recruited to carry out the removal operation in June. The NPS said to ensure the starfish stay out of the atoll, removal operations will be ongoing. The Taiwan Coral Reef Society compared the starfish to “locusts passing through,” and said the reef may need 10 years to recover. Crown-of-thorns starfish have up to 21 arms, hundreds of toxin-tipped thorns, and feed on coral. They can “occur in plague proportions,” according to the Australian Institute of Marine Science, which notes they have also caused great damage to the Great Barrier Reef. The Dongsha Atoll National Park was established in 2007 and is one of nine national parks in Taiwan. The park is closed to tourists due to ongoing conservation efforts and is home to unique and diverse wildlife. |
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Jono Thomson, Taiwan News, Staff Writer | |
2024-07-11 |