Starfish Enterprise

[Warning! Warning! Some of you may find this a 'sluggish' read, while others may be titillated by the villain's 'ten-tickles'.]

"Captain's log, stardate 47457.1. While on a mapping survey below the surface of the planet's ocean, exploring a natural barrier of marine colonial polyps, characterised by a calcareous skeletal rock formation, we came across a giant starfish-eating snail, named the Triton by the area's colonisers after their mythological messenger of the sea."

Sound like a work of fiction, a tale from the annals of the Starfish Enterprise, illustrated by an imaginary creature of fabled ugliness, brought to life by the creativeness of the moviemaker's animation department? 

Well this tall tale is no piece of fiction.

Off the north-east coast of 'Terra Australis Incognita' (Australia to you) such an oversized marine escargot does indeed dwell and, furthermore, this Giant Triton Sea-Snail feeds on the spiky and highly venomous Crown-of-Thorns Starfish (Acanthaster planc) which, in turn, feeds on select fast growing coral species to the detriment of a sizeable portion of the Great Barrier Reef. 

But first let's set the scene for the opening act of this real life submarine stage drama.

According to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park authority, there have been "four documented outbreaks" of coral munching Crown-of-Thorns Starfish since the 1960s "with the last starting in 2010". Since females are capable of spawning some 65 million eggs in one season, it is not surprising that these invertebrates can occasionally reach plague proportions. Along with coral bleaching and other coral stressing events such as cyclones, it is little wonder that the reef has reportedly declined by 50% over the last 30 years (Australian Institute of Marine Science).

Enter then, from stage left, the superhero of the plot to recover the reef's decay, the Giant Triton, which preys on the starfish and paralyses it with its venomous saliva, being seemingly immune to the starfish's poisonous spikes.

In the past, these snails (which can grow up to half a metre in length) have been hunted, almost to extinction, for their attractive and ornate shells.

Surprisingly, in a gesture of remarkably uncommon, common sense, the federal government has recently announced a new two year research programme to explore if these slimingly sluggish hard core enterprising feeders can be 'encouraged' to play the lead part in the survival of the reef. The simple and obvious plot is to have the Giant Triton feed on meal-sized numbers of starfish, with the balance of the prickly star fleet being encouraged to flee.  It appears that the starfish has an abhorrence for the Triton's snaily smell, which, coincidentally, would avoid them being on the menu of this 'restaurant at the end of the reef', but would result in serious disruption to the breeding cycle of this real life villain.

We are, of course, somewhat reticent here in Oz to introduce any serious interference with Mother Nature's cycle, as the now plague proportions of the introduced cane toad has taught us, with its heavy toll on many of our endemic species. Hopefully, this time, our scientists are better educated to the potential dangers of meddling (poorly researched) with the balance (and imbalance) of the food chain.

Just in case there are any doubters reading this seemingly far fetched claim about the voracious appetite of the giant triton, and its totally terrible tolerance of the starfish's singularly stinging spikes, then click on this video and weep. 

And so, will the Giant Triton prove to be the hero of tomorrow and the saviour of the Great Barrier Reef, or will today's villain, the Crown-of-Thorns Starfish, continue to ravage and ruin the central coral matrix of this splendid world phenomenon, the Great Barrier Reef? Only time will tell.

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Sources of Information and Photographs:

http://oceana.org/marine-life/cephalopods-crustaceans-other-shellfish/giant-triton 

http://www.aims.gov.au/docs/media/featured-content.html/-/asset_publisher/Ydk18I5jDwF7/content/the-triton-that-ate-the-crown-of-thorns 

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/giant-triton-sea-snails-recruited-to-rescue-reef-from-crownofthorns-starfish/news-story/0464334d41e57bb32ac753051752dad6

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http://ken-boddie.squarespace.com

The author of the above, Ken Boddie, besides being a sometime poet and occasional writer, is an enthusiastic photographer, rarely leisure-travelling without his Canon, and loves to interact with other like-minded people with diverse interests.

Ken's three day work week (part time commitment) as a consulting engineer allows him to follow his photography interests, and to plan trips to an ever increasing list of countries and places of scenic beauty and cultural diversity.