Word: starfishes
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...should anyone care about the land mollusk, or even the Southern bald eagle? Because, as ecologists keep repeating, all species are interrelated in the biological pyramid. Destroying one can adversely affect many others. A prime example is Australia's Great Barrier Reef, which is being eaten away by starfish. Some scientists speculate that the ecological balance was upset when man began to remove their natural predators...
...discussing creatures that form lasting bonds with their mates (jackals, gibbons, geese, etc.), Wickler included Hymenocera elegans, or the painted shrimp. Almost in passing, he mentioned that the shrimp feeds on starfish, including the crown-of-thorns. To the Talbots, who have been looking for ways to cope with the sudden and mysterious proliferation of the crown-of-thorns, the beautifully colored russet-and-white shrimp seemed a promising answer...
Soft Underbelly. At the Talbots' request, Wickler set up a demonstration of the painted shrimp's effectiveness; he staged an extraordinary laboratory encounter between a crown-of-thorns and a pair of painted shrimps.* It was hardly a match. Oblivious to the starfish's poisonous spines, the shrimps quickly lifted one of its arms (it can have as many as 21) and began tickling the tiny tubular feet of its prey. Instantly, the starfish retracted them, effectively immobilizing itself. Then, after only a few minutes of joint effort, the two-inch-long shrimps succeeded in toppling...
...efficient dispatch of the starfish convinced Wickler and the Talbots that the painted shrimp, in sufficient numbers, might quickly bring the crown-of-thorns under control and end the threat to Pacific reefs. Although the shrimp are not common around Australia's Great Barrier Reef and other threatened areas, they could be mass-produced in laboratories and set free in the ocean; a single female, laying between 100 and 200 eggs at a time, can theoretically produce a new generation of adult shrimps every 18 days...
...contrast, other methods of containing the crown-of-thorns seem hopelessly inadequate. Divers have already injected thousands of the creatures off Pacific reefs with lethal solutions of formaldehyde, but the population continues to explode. Indeed, Australian scientists recently reported that the starfish have so seriously damaged the Great Barrier Reef that it will take at least 20 years to recover...