Invasive species
This seastar, native to East Asian countries Korea, Japan, and China, is one of the most dangerous invasive species. Free-swimming larvae of the seastar found their way into the ballast waters and since introduction, the species has massively thrown off the trophic web in the reef ecosystem. They are voracious predators that threaten native species such as shellfish. Countless efforts to eliminate the species have been made, but due to its high regenerative and reproductive rates, the Northern Pacific Seastar remains as invasive as ever.
These large carnivorous starfish, native to the Indo-Pacific region, are the hungry predators of coral polyps. Their characteristic spines are venomous, filled with saponins to dissuade their own predators. Crown-of-thorns starfish are responsible for 25% of the coral population decline in just the past three decades, and they will not be going away anytime soon - one female can produce 65 million eggs in one breeding season!
Coral reefs provide many ecological and economical benefits to our world, but are in danger of extinction due to invasive lionfish that originally inhabit the Indian and South Pacific Oceans and the Red Sea. Lionfish became invasive to Atlantic waters after being imported to the tropics for aquariums and subsequently being deposited into waterways due to their eventual size and dominance. They have no natural predators in these waters and are thusly becoming rapidly overpopulated and depleting resources, out-competing every other native fish in the Western Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea and wreaking havoc on the ecosystem ecologically, environmentally and economically.
Click these links for more information:
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/impacts-invasive-lionfish
http://reefresilience.org/coral-reefs/stressors/invasive-species/
https://www.kidzone.ws/habitats/great-barrier-reef.htm
These large carnivorous starfish, native to the Indo-Pacific region, are the hungry predators of coral polyps. Their characteristic spines are venomous, filled with saponins to dissuade their own predators. Crown-of-thorns starfish are responsible for 25% of the coral population decline in just the past three decades, and they will not be going away anytime soon - one female can produce 65 million eggs in one breeding season!
Coral reefs provide many ecological and economical benefits to our world, but are in danger of extinction due to invasive lionfish that originally inhabit the Indian and South Pacific Oceans and the Red Sea. Lionfish became invasive to Atlantic waters after being imported to the tropics for aquariums and subsequently being deposited into waterways due to their eventual size and dominance. They have no natural predators in these waters and are thusly becoming rapidly overpopulated and depleting resources, out-competing every other native fish in the Western Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea and wreaking havoc on the ecosystem ecologically, environmentally and economically.
Click these links for more information:
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/impacts-invasive-lionfish
http://reefresilience.org/coral-reefs/stressors/invasive-species/
https://www.kidzone.ws/habitats/great-barrier-reef.htm
