Crown-of-thorns starfish reveal reef ecology’s paradox: predators as gardeners in a climate-altered ocean
Original framing: “Crown-of-thorns starfish can help reefs thrive” — Phys.org
Indigenous fire-stick farming and rotational grazing in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef historically maintained COTS populations through controlled burning of mangroves (their nursery grounds) and selective fishing of their prey. Torres Strait Islander rangers report that COTS outbreaks correlate with declines in *djugun* (traditional fishing) and *mala* (cultural burning) practices, which regulated nutrient flows. The 2019 *Murramarang Aboriginal Land Council* study found that COTS-free reefs near Indigenous-managed areas had 40% higher coral diversity—yet these findings are rarely cited in mainstream culling campaigns. The erasure of this knowledge reinforces the myth that science alone can 'fix' reefs, ignoring that Indigenous stewardship already solved these problems for millennia.
The crown-of-thorns starfish is not the reef’s enemy but its *unacknowledged gardener*—a role obscured by colonial science’s binary framing of nature as either 'harmful' or 'pristine.
' Indigenous fire-stick farming and rotational grazing systems in Australia and the Pacific historically maintained COTS in balance, yet these practices were erased by European settlement’s disruption of coastal ecosystems (e.g., river damming, agricultural runoff). The current 'war on COTS' is a symptom of ecological amnesia: we cull them without addressing the nutrient pollution and overfishing that turn them into pests, while ignoring that they could be harnessed as bioindicators or even restoration tools. The solution lies in *relational ecology*—treating COTS as cultural teachers (as in Māori and Fijian traditions) and policy levers (via nutrient trading markets), not targets. The reef’s future depends on whether we learn to dance with the starfish, or keep trying to stamp them out—only to find they return, wiser and more resilient than our culling programs.