The MV Hero, one of two vessels in the Crown-of-Thorns Starfish Targeted Control Program, carries a complement of 11 divers trained to find the coral-eating starfish and inject them with a compound derived from ovine and bovine bile, which kills them without risk to any other marine organisms.

Crown-of-Thorns starfish feed on living coral and are a major threat to the health of the Great Barrier Reef. Culling efforts are more important than ever now to help ensure that corals that have survived consecutive mass bleaching events are not consumed by starfish.

Hero has spent two weeks in drydock receiving refits to its hull, equipment, interior and tender, including new below-waterline paint and even new carpets.

AMPTO Project Manager Steve Moon OAM said Hero would be heading to areas in which starfish aggregations were expected to occur off the coast near Mission Beach.

“Crown-of-Thorns Starfish tend to spawn around about the same time as coral, the timing of which is mainly determined by the lunar cycle,” Mr Moon said.

Divers on Hero can remove around 3000 starfish per 10-day voyage. 

The program is a cooperative effort between the Australian government’s National Environmental Science Programme (NESP), Reef and Rainforest Research Centre (RRRC), the Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators (AMPTO) and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA). 

Since 2012 the Targeted Control Program has removed over 620,000 starfish.

With each starfish able to eat around 20 square metres of coral over its lifetime, this equates to more than 12 million square metres of coral preserved that would have otherwise been consumed.