47. SHARK PICTURES - © John Harding

 

46. Crown of Thorns REPORTS (1968 and 1983)

 

Starfish control. Formaldehyde injections. Guam USA 1969

Informative summary of the mess at Green Island (Cairns).

The era as remembered by me, John Harding:

Heron Island was 'the great barrier reef' - further north was still unexplored territory for southerners.  With very few crown of thorns being seen around the Capricorn and Bunker Group (which is where Heron Island is located), the starfish was virtually unknown to underwater explorers of the era.

Off Cairns it was a very different situation - but few southerners wanted to suffer traveling 1000 miles of dangerous narrow highway littered with broken windscreens.

"There are no crown of thorns starfish on The Great Barrier Reef" (or words to that effect) announced one colleague to a media press conference and Queensland state government keen to downplay warnings by Dr. Robert Endean, Reader in Zoology at the University of Queensland.

Heron Island was 'The Great Barrier Reef' and supplied everything we needed to photograph - fish, sharks, coral and warm clear water, although no giant clam (Tridacna gigas) and virtually no crown of thorns starfish.

The Belgian Expedition 1967 had opened our eyes to what was happening underwater up north.

These two magazine reports were published side by side in the same issue of Australian Skindivers Magazine, a small circulation monthly mailed to members of the USFA. (Underwater Spear Fisherman's Association - later Underwater Skindivers and Fisherman's Association).In that era magazine news reporting was slow, taking months between concept and publication.

The first story-report gives statistics on crown of thorns density at Green Island (Cairns).

The second report (by me) also published in Sea Frontiers the highly regarded semi-scientific magazine of the International Oceanographic Foundation.

Former address:  Sea Frontiers, Rickenbacker Causeway, Virginia Key, Miami, Florida.   Editor: Jean Bradfisch.

Otter Reef (Townsville) 1967 during The Belgian Expedition.

Similar text published in Sea Frontiers magazine, USA. (1969).

Crown of Thorns starfish (on Wikipedia)

Ron Taylor