THE DAY BEFORE PLANNING AND CONDUCTING A COTS CLEAN-UP
ger and just want to get involved. But injuries can be serious and require immediate med- ical attention. See Appendix III for a description of first aid for injuries caused by COTs.
Data collection before burial ashore should include the total number of COTs removed and the diameter of each, by location on the reef.The resultant size-class data is
useful for monitoring purposes. As explained earlier, size is a rough estimate of a COTs population age-structure, i.e., whether or not they have reached the spawning stage and
whether multiple ages of COTs populate the reef. Some clean-up programs can also col- lect data for more extensive research purposes by weighing the collected COTs or remov-
ing spines for studies about the population’s age-structure and possible reasons for the outbreak.
Thanking the community and all volunteers should not be neglected.When everyone is back on shore and the total number and size of all COTs has been measured, a small cer-
emony recognizing and rewarding everyones participation makes a nice finale. Drinks should be available water, tea or soft drinks and, if possible, a meal or snack. Ideas for
recognition include prizes for the largest COTs collected, andor the most and fewest collected, certificates of participation, or T-shirts. Finally, the results of the clean-up total
numbers cleaned off each reef area should be tallied and reported to the participants; any media representatives present should also be briefed in full.