It may sound preposterous but vinegar can save the Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef is famous for its exotic corals but starfish feed on the corals and are posing a serious threat to the continued survival of the GBR. Each female is able to produce about 65 million eggs in a single breeding season and that is dangerous. Hence, Researchers at Queensland's James Cook University have experimented with vinegar to kill the menace and save the GBR.
This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 24 September 2015.

The venomous, coral-eating starfish are considered one of the most significant threats posed to the Great Barrier Reef and, by using vinegar it has been possible to eliminate the starfish and success rate has been 100 per cent as revealed by the researchers of JCU.
At present, divers used 10ml-12ml of ox bile to kill each individual crown-of-thorns starfish and that is not only expensive but needs permits and has to be mixed to the right concentration.
In comparison, vinegar is cheap, readily available, and in the JCU lab trials, all specimens were dead within 48 hours of being injected. It would now be necessary to carry out actual field trials which are expected to begin by the end of the year. These large-scale field trials would be to ensure that the process was safe for other marine life.
The magnitude of the task would be evident from the fact that last year, divers were able to kill about 350,000 on the Great Barrier Reef – it required two full-time boat crews. But, there were estimated to be about four to 12 million starfish on the reef!!
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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