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17/01/2008: "STARFISH DISCOVERED ...... 200 years old, largest ever seen"
Jocelyn Edwards (left and also in red suit) helped with the finding of this Crown of Thorns starfish.
The coral killing starfish was on a bommie just outside Fitzroy Reef lagoon, south of Heron Island where it had been seen by our skipper Ron Isbell for years. This is the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, offshore from Gladstone, Queensland.
We were on a private charter aboard Ron's motor-sailer.
Dr Robert Endean (formerly of University of Queensland) confirmed it was the largest CoT he had ever seen and probably 200 or more years old.
"It was probably a juvenile when Captain James Cook sailed past that reef more than 200 years ago" said our distinguished friend Dr. Endean.
A similar picture became a postcard promoting the Great Barrier Reef. We were lucky to slip that one past the publisher as anything to do with starfish was anti-tourism.
With much delight, I addressed and mailed one of the first cards to Dr Robert Endean, for years a campaigner for more research into these mysterious starfish plagues. He considered them a serious problem being brushed under the carpet by the Queensland Government under Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen. (RIP)
The postcard would have been something of future historical interest and value.
For example: The first Crown of Thorns postcard, mailed from Cairns (where the problem was first noticed off Green Island), addressed to the leading CoT scientist.
Guess what? The postcard never arrived. Whoever has it today is therefore a thief or a person in possession of a stolen item. (I hope karma catches up with whoever it is).
