英语听力：自然百科 澳大利亚大堡礁 Great Barrier Reef—16

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Whole populations of turtles were brought to the verge² of extinction³ by hunting them down for their valuable shells and meat. But despite now being protected, a new threat has begun to surface. The site of baby turtles hatching and raising for the sea may soon be a distant memory. Over the last few decades, evidence of our influence on the reef has become all too real. 

 

Marine⁴ biologist, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, is on the frontline to protect it. Today he’s come to look for one of its greatest enemies, a single creature with the power to destroy the largest reef in the world.

 

"Relatively⁵, small changes in the conditions can cause some species to actually expire, and one of those is the Crown-of-thorns Starfish."

 

This evil-looking animal grows up to 3 feet across. It’s covered in sharp, venomous spines⁶, and its favorite food is coral. They can descend⁷ on the reef in their millions, swarming⁸ over it and eating it alive.  

 

"Like all starfish, it has the amazing ability to exude⁹ its stomach, trys feeding at this hole here, digest the coral and then suck up all the goodies, leaving essentially¹⁰ just the skeleton."

 

This starfish is capable of producing 6 million children every year. Normally very few survive. But now man has tipped the odds¹¹ in their favor. Fertilizers from inland farms have washed down from the rivers onto the reef. They made the perfect nutrient¹² for the baby starfish, and their numbers go through the roof. The population can explode to 2000 times its normal level.

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