Word: corals
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...typical land rocks, and bears other similarities to specimens found on the ocean floor. For another, the desert regions of the Afar triangle are covered with a thick layer of evap-orites, the salty debris left behind after seawater evaporates. Tazieff and his colleagues also found distinct traces of coral in the area's lava beds, plus a Stone Age ax that was actually encrusted with seashells-a sign that the relic was once covered by seas...
...catastrophe." in other words, a situation in which the ecology of the earth is irretrieyably disturbed. Little mini-eco-catastrophes have been happening ever since man arrived on the scene. In the South, Pacific collectors, naturalists, and trumpeters on hundreds of islands have been picking up tritons off the coral reefs and beaches to get their conch shells. The tritons cat the starfish which prey on the coral animals that build up the reefs. Because there are now so many people on the earth, they are now picking up enough tritons so that the coral reefs are crumbling. And after...
Baffling Phenomenon. Acanthaster's ravages not only occur quickly but are long-lasting. After stretching itself over the coral, the crown-of-thorns quickly digests the simple organisms that constitute the tough outer layer of the reef. Structurally weakened, the remaining skeletons are easily eroded by the ocean's waves. Once the coral barriers are breached, the islands that they surround are no longer protected from the pounding of the open sea. Because the reefs are vital to the spawning and feeding of much undersea life, the process can also destroy fertile fishing grounds almost overnight...
...protected by law in Queensland, Australia. Others propose spreading lime on the ocean floor, a technique that has already been used with moderate success to protect Long Island Sound's oyster beds from the common American starfish, Asterias forbesi. A Japanese scientist has even advised stringing wire around coral reefs to repel the starfish with a low-voltage electric shock...
...pressing hard to find better answers. So, too, are 40 marine biologists and divers from San Diego's Westinghouse Lab who fanned out across the Pacific this summer in an expedition sponsored by the U.S. Government. Unless the crown-of-thorns is restrained, many more miles of coral in the Pacific and other seas will be ravaged by the spreading starfish...