ORMOC CITY — An outbreak of the poisonous crown-of-thorn starfish (COTS) has been reported in the sea off several coastal barangays of Malitbog, Southern Leyte.

Malitbog Fishery head Josephine Bag-ao, in a telephone interview, said she started to notice the presence of the COTS during a dive in March.

But she described the presence of the COTS then as tolerable as this could only be seen by a few.

However, one of her staff members who made a dive in the second week of May has reported to her that the presence of COTS was getting wider and has infested almost half of the 22 coastal barangays of Malitbog.

Bag-ao said the COTS have affected the livelihood of the fishermen who now fish in shallow areas because the COTS have already destroyed the coral reefs.

The Ormoc Scuba Divers Club (OSDC) has assisted in the extraction of COTS in several coastal barangays of Malitbog infested by the starfish.

Irish Belmonte, section head of the Fishery Research and Development Section of the City Agriculture Office and a member of the divers club, said the divers club of Malitbog has invited their club as the COTS have already become an outbreak.

The OSDC has helped extract the parasites during weekends, which resulted in the removal of 576 pieces of COTS weighing about 400 kilos.

The club was expected to dive again this weekend as the COTS continued to thrive. (Editor: Leti Boniol)

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