Helping local fishermen fight off the crown-of-thorns starfish
Monday, October 13, 2014 - 06:30
in Earth & Climate
New research has been published in Marine Biology on the long term population dynamics of the Crown-of- Thorns starfish, Acanthaster planci. It is one of the most long term and extensive surveys of its kind, with data spanning over 24 years through cooperation with the local fishing population of Onna Village in Okinawa and the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University. With fisherman providing a great deal of logistics support and data, OIST researchers have been able to plot with a high degree of accuracy the movement and population size over time of A. planci. Masako Nakamura, a researcher at OIST's Marine Biophysics Unit has headed up the joint effort.