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BIG SCREEN
TROUBLE BELOW
'Crown of Thorns Starfish': Tale of the creature that has infested the Great Barrier Reef
Reyhan Harmanci
Thursday, March 30, 2006
When it comes to the health of the Great Barrier Reef, there is a predator more fearsome than global warming or human pollution. More scary than sharks. Breeds faster than bunnies. Meet the kudzu of the deep: the crown of thorns starfish.
"Some reefs are 99 percent destroyed already," says Australian filmmaker Larry Zetlin, speaking from Australia. "It's patchy but 60 percent of the Great Barrier Reef is thought to be heavily infested with crown of thorns."
The problem of the starfish is the subject of a documentary, "Crown of Thorns Starfish: Monster From the Shallows," co-produced and first shown by the Discovery Channel. Directed by Zetlin and shot by David Hannan (whom Zetlin says was one of the first to recognize the problem), this film has both beautiful images and an important story to tell.
It's also veteran filmmaker Zetlin's first foray into an off-land documentary. Working primarily with National Geographic and the Discovery Channel, he's been an independent producer since 1980.
"It's shot in high-definition," Zetlin says, "and the visuals are stunning."
The problem, as Zetlin explains it, is that to make room for Australia's sugarcane fields, swamps had to be drained and wooded areas cut down. The runoff from the plant fertilizer spills into the rivers during the wet season, and then flows to the ocean, causing the algae population to explode.
And guess what loves algae? Crown of thorn starfish.
And what do crown of thorn starfish dine on, exclusively? Coral reefs.
The effects of losing the barrier reefs are hard to overstate: besides being a prime tourist destination, and one of the most breathtaking sights you can see under or above water, the reefs protect the coastline of Australia. Fish populations would drop and the biodiversity of the region would be permanently lost.
But the decimation can and, hopefully, will be reversed, if the rivers can be protected. Swamps will have to be remade, and trees planted along riverbeds.
"That's beginning to happen in Queensland," Zetlin says. "People have to accept that the runoffs have to be managed. It's all doable, but it's going to take a lot of political will and money."
"Crown of Thorns Starfish" plays tonight as part of the monthly Green Planet Films Environmental Film Series and is sponsored by California Dive Center. Event starts at 6 p.m., with movie at 7 p.m. Free. Varnish Fine Art, 77 Natoma St., S.F. (415) 383-0484. www.greenplanetfilms.org.
Reyhan Harmanci, rharmanci@sfchronicle.com
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