Government establishes task force to tackle starfish overpopulation

Kaohsiung, Aug. 18 (CNA) The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) on Sunday announced the establishment of a task force charged with tackling the overpopulated crown-of-thorns starfish threatening the ecosystem of corals in the oceans around Taiwan's Dongsha Atoll National Park.

At a news conference in Kaohsiung Sunday, Interior Minister Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) revealed that aside from the support of the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ocean Affairs Council behind it, the cross-agency team will also include experts from Academia Sinica, the Taiwanese Coral Reef Society and National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU) alongside professional divers to reduce the starfish population.

Liu said the current plan is to have the task force sent to the national park in 10 deployments to clear out the starfish, with each deployment lasting a week.

According to the Marine National Park Headquarters under the MOI's National Park Service, after an official call to recruit expert divers was sent out on July 10, the organization received responses from 436 applicants in just 11 days.

In the official roster released on July 30, 102 divers were recruited by the organization as volunteers.

On top of the 102 divers, the organization explained that the task force will also have 39 experts from nongovernmental organizations, Academia Sinica's Biodiversity Research Center and the NSYSU's Dongsha research station.

The organization said that the task force adopted charonia tritonis, a species of very large sea snail commonly known as "Triton's trumpet" that is the natural enemy of the starfish that has been plaguing the waters of the national park, as its mascot.

On why the starfish is overpopulated and how its numbers threaten the corals of the national park, the organization explained that the adults of the specific starfish species feed on polyps as a part of nature's food chain, and proves no threat to corals when the ecosystem is balanced.

However, overconsumption of polyps by a high number of crown-of-thorns starfish could result in the collapse of the ecosystem of corals, which Dongsha Atoll National Park is currently experiencing likely due to a combination of factors including changes in climate, pollution and the decrease of the starfish's natural predators.

The organization went on to add that from its continued monitoring of the starfish's population in recent years and also with the help of Academia Sinica, it was confirmed in June that the overpopulation was so severe that 20 to 30 starfish could be spotted every 100 square meters in the waters of the national park.

The MOI said that Taiwan is not the only country currently plagued by overpopulation of the starfish species.

It revealed that Australia's Great Barrier Reef as well as Okinawa and other nations located by the South China Sea have also been suffering from the overpopulation of the starfish.

While experts and academics are still trying to pinpoint the main reason why the population of crown-of-thorns starfish has grown so exponentially, the MOI said, manual removal of the starfish is currently the most effective way to control its population.

The Dongsha Atoll National Park, located in the north of South China Sea, is about 400 Kilometers from Taiwan proper.