Scientists discover that vinegar may help save the Great Barrier Reef
Common household vinegar may help protect Australia’s iconic Great Barrier Reef by effectively and quickly killing the coral-munching crown-of-thorns starfish, scientists said today.
The innovative method of killing crown-of-thorns starfish (CoTS) is safe to other marine life and will now be introduced on the reef.
The Great Barrier Reef has been exposed to multiple disturbance events in recent years, including the 2016 and 2017 mass coral bleaching, three severe tropical cyclones in the past three years, and the ongoing CoTS outbreak.
CoTS are breeding at epidemic levels and are one of the primary reasons for the decline in live coral.
Researchers at James Cook University in Australia led a large-scale assessment using vinegar to inject CoTS at four sites on the reef over six weeks.
They had previously shown that the simple household chemical was just as effective at killing the reef-eating starfish as much more expensive chemicals with complicated processes.
The latest tests show vinegar has no ill-effect on other organisms in the sea.
“We recorded live coral cover, abundance of coral disease, fish abundance and diversity, fish diseases and the abundance of closely related invertebrates before, during and after the six-week study period and found no detrimental effects, said Lisa Bostrom-Einarsson from James Cook University.
“There …read more
