A significant milestone was reached last week with our Crown of Thorns Starfish (COTS) Control team completing their 100th trip onboard the PMG Odyssey.
This is the 5th year of performing this work under our contract with GBRMPA. Typical trips are 10 days in duration, with the vessel and crew staying at sea at numerous Great Barrier Reef locations typically in the Townsville and Whitsunday regions
Works typically performed during the 10 day trips include:
- manta towing to ascertain COTS numbers, coral cover etc, which allows the team to prioritise their efforts
- Reef Health Impact Surveys
- research and collection of tritons, plankton tows, tissue sampling and the regular collection of COTS for AIMS
- COTS culling
12 divers onboard perform up to 4 dives each per day of maximum 50 minutes duration of 20m depth.
The program has been deemed a great success by GBRMPA, with many reefs managed by PMG seeing COTS status change from ‘Severe Outbreak’ to ‘Potential’ and ‘No Outbreak’ respectively.
Well done to all of our crew who have been involved in this successful project!
