Crown of Thorns starfish

History of Outbreaks on theGBR• The recurrence of oubreaks in the early 1980’sgenerated renewed interest in A. planci• Reef-wide monitoring was initiated• Outbreaks spread southward from their center oforigin somewhere around Lizard Is.• Only about 15% of the 500 reefs surveyed wereaffected (mostly mid-shelf reefs)• The second outbreak reported to have had amuch greater impact than the first (but verylimited data)• Outbreaks regarded as cyclical with a third seriesof outbreaks expected in the mid 1990’s