Carissa Stamm Biology 2

Acanthaster Planci Not many people have heard of these. If you have great, but if not let me explain. These sea stars are known as Crown-of thorn stars. Some could potentially be fooled by their pretty colors and interesting look. They can look however they please, but there is nothing pleasant about them. Ancanthaster planci is a harm to the ocean. Especially the Coral Reef. The sea star continuously feeds on the coral. It will attach itself and literally suck the life out of the Coral Reef. Along with the Coral Reef, fish. Fish tend to hang out near the Coral. With the dangerous sea stars attaching themselves to the Coral it causes the fish go either die, or to not come around. In other terms could decrease fish migration. Not only does it feed on the Coral Reef, but its an opportunistic carnivore. With being this, it can also feed on things like: sclerectinian corals, sessile invertebrates, and dead animals. Youre probably wondering eating dead animals? let me explain. The sea star will avert its stomach through its mouth and latch onto its prey. Once latched it will digest the tissue, and absorb nutrients through the preys stomach walls. These things are a rather smart dangerous sea star. The Ancanthaster is found in many places, but primarily found between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. The star will breed during the summer months and tends to be in the shallow part of the water so fertilization is more likely to occur. After fertilization has happened and adult is formed after the whole process the star will go to the bottom of these oceans and attach itself to the Coral Reef, hints on the whole beginning of this issue. With these coming to

the surface it forms the problem of humans being in that shallow water this star has placed itself. Along with that issue these stars ruin the Coral Reefs for tourist industry as well as decreases the consumption of fish for humans (its killing fish). Many things have been done to attempt to lower the count of these sea stars to help out all the areas affected, but some have worked more than others have. One that seemed to be ineffective was cutting the sea star into pieces. They found by doing this it only increased the amount. These stars can regenerate any part of the body that has been removed as long as a part of the central disk was still in take, so with these it only just caused them to regenerate. Needless to say they stopped doing this. But something that seemed to work is injection of chemicals such as: formalin, and ammonia injections. With these injections it will kill the individual that it is released into. Although that seems like its perfect, its also harmful, so lastly, but certainly not least the method of humans catching them into big nets to remove them came about. This seems to work because it can net up to 150,000 per day during a large outbreak. These stars might be beautiful, but they are very dangerous. Stay away!

Work Cited Ault, Larissa, Juliet McCardle, and Caitlin Sussman. "Animal Diversity Web." ADW: Acanthaster Planci: INFORMATION. Animal Diversity Web, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2014. <http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Acanthaster_planci/>. Lewis, Rene' A. Rep. N.p., 21 Oct. 2004. Web. 20 Jan. 2014. <http://people.uncw.edu/hosier/cmgmt/cmsyllabus/student%20manuscripts/lewis%20cot %20paper.doc>.