NUKUORO PEOPLE – 1969
Archive for April 28, 2010
GUAM STARFISH SURVEY TO MICRONESIA
At Guam (USA) Robert Endean dived on a starfish colony and ‘tested’ the agonizing pain the needle sharp spines produce.
More than sixty internationally-known coral reef scientists, expert divers, underwater photographers were invited to the US island of Guam during July 1969. Crown-of-Thorns starfish were thought to be a serious threat to coral reef ecology in the Pacific – as serious as human induced global warming is thought to be today!
Among those brought to Guam was Australia’s Dr Robert Endean who later campaigned for decades on behalf of a wider understanding of coral reef ecology on the Great Barrier Reefs in Australia. Endean was up against a state premier who was also the police minister. It was going to be a difficult battle.