Abstract Summary
Crown-of-thorns starfish (CoTS) cause widespread loss of hard coral cover on reefs across the Indo-Pacific. CoTS outbreaks are considered to be one of the major threats facing the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and might be expected to have a significant influence on the success of coral restoration programs. Despite a long history of CoTS management and research on the GBR there has been only slow improvement in CoTS control programs since the 1960s. Other than the development of the single-injection culling method and the deployment of a dedicated control program, there has been no significant advance in how control activities are implemented or in their effectiveness. In response to this, we developed a linked management and research strategy that was firmly focussed on improving the design and performance of the CoTS control program. In developing the strategy we applied an integrated pest management approach. We started by asking how CoTS outbreaks arise and spread, what management responses were possible, how they might operate, and from this, what objectives were realistic. The resultant management strategy allowed us to identify key areas where research could best contribute to management by identifying realistic management objectives and providing recommendations to ensure that operations were efficient and effective. This process identified five clear management domains and associated research needs: 1) Control at sites, individual reefs, and local areas and its optimization; 2) Control at regional scales and its optimization; 3) Identifying appropriate management objectives for existing and new outbreaks; 4) developing new control and monitoring approaches; and 5) addressing ultimate causes. In this talk we describe the development of the management and research strategy, the process through which it is being implemented on the GBR, and analysis of the effectiveness of manual control to date relative to other management options.
