[Previous entry: "FISH PICTURE ..... aka Blue Parrot"] [Next entry: "THE SWAIN REEFS ..... Gannet Cay; Coralita"]
04/11/2006: "SAVE THE BARRIER REEF .....the conservation campaign"
It was a Queensland conservation movement that became national years before other campaigns:
Commercial Whaling,
Tasmanian Dams (Franklin River).
Fraser Island (sand-mining).
Uranium (keep it in the ground).
Save the Barrier Reef campaign was replaced by global warming and coral bleaching concerns.
Crown of Thorns starfish problem hasn’t gone away. Mis-information continues.
A freelance writer in an Australian pop science magazine this year believed an adult starfish lives eight years and produces millions of eggs each year.
That is correct, but the author neglected to add the extra 200 years a starfish can survive.
This was according to (the late) Dr Robert Endean, a scientist who studied growth rings on the spines – amongst other things associated with this pest.
The above plague photo was near Mystery Cay (two reefs to the east to be precise) in The Swain Reefs during the 1970’s. Captain Wally G Muller took us there aboard Coralita.
