Title of Project:
Ecological Monitoring of Crown-of-Thorns Starfish and Coral Reefs in the Taiping Island
Duration:
May 26, 2022, to December 20, 2023
Name of Principle Investigator:
Society for Wildlife And Nature (SWAN), Chairman, Ming-Siou Jeng
Abstract of Project:
The Taiping Island in the southernmost waters of Taiwan owns a rich coral reef ecosystem, which is close to the biodiversity hotspot of the Coral Triangle, and also provides abundant coral reef resources and habitats.
The coral reefs are an important supplementary source of fishery resources for countries near the waters, and they also play an important role in regulation of climate changes. However, those waters had been subject to excessive fishery actives, habitat destructions and marine pollutions for decades, and with the climate changes of global warming in recent years, which has caused huge impacts on coral reef ecosystems. The outbreak of crown-of-thorns starfish in 2021 has devastated the stony coral communities in the waters surrounding Taiping Island. It is important to collect and analyze the marine life and ecological environment information in the surrounded waters, therefore a long-term survey of coral reef ecological system and monitoring project is carried out.
Outcomes and Milestones:
In the two years of this project, a total of 82 sample areas with crown-of-thorns starfish were surveyed with removal action. And a total of 986 crown-of-thorns starfish were removed.
There are a total of 208 species of 94 families of invertebrate surveys, a total of 456 fish species of 180 genera of 53 families were recorded around Taiping Island.
At present, the coral coverage around Taiping Island has not been restored, but the abundance and variety of new coral recruitments are not lower than those of healthy coral reefs, indicating that the coral reef ecosystem in Taiping Island has a very high recovery potential.
Figure1. crown-of-thorns starfish
Figure2. 6 fixed survey stations around The Taiping Island
Figure3. Underwater Fish Survey
Figure4. Coral Recruitment Survey
Figure5. Ability to inject to clean crown-of-thorns starfish
