Crown of thorns seastar feeding on branching coral

Crown of thorns seastar (COTS) (also known as Crown of thorns starfish) feeding on an Acropora sp. coral at Davies Reefs (17 July 2018) near the AIMS weather station tower in the middle of the reef lagoon. This COTS was observed over a 5 day period and only moved from this branch to the bottom of the coral. This stand of branching coral was surrounded by sand and was approximately 5 m from the nearest coral bommie. We found 3 COTS in a 30 m radius of the weather station tower. The coral cover on the neighbouring coral bommies was very high, mostly covered in branching Acropora sp. however many of the table corals in this area were dead, presumably eaten by COTS.

Davies Reef - 14 July 2018

This photo was taken with a GoPro 6.