Coral reefs in American Samoa are under threat from a new bloom of crown of thorns starfish.
For the past two weeks, a dive team from the territory's national park has been killing thousands of starfish in the waters off Fagasa and Fagamalo.
This week they are moving to Maliu Mai and off the international airport which is now heavily infested with the crown of thorns.
With local divers from the National Park, the team has already removed more than 5,000 crown of thorn starfish but a National Park of Samoa marine ecologist, Dr Tim Clark, says the new infestations are already having a devastating effect on the coral.
"We have lost Tama Banks. Most of the corals out there have now been eaten. We were just out there last week and Tama Banks had some beautiful table top corals and they're gone. We also saw some areas in Fagasa were they were basically hoovering up the corals, from the bottom of the reef all the way to the shoreline."
A marine ecologist, Dr Tim Clark
