SYDNEY In the warm waters of northeast Australia, a battle is looming between two exotic predators of the sea. Its outcome could well determine the environmental health of one of the world's greatest natural wonders -- the Great Barrier Reef.
On one side is a giant sea snail that was hunted almost to extinction 50 years ago because of its beautiful shell. On the other side, the fast-multiplying crown of thorns starfish, a spiky venomous predator whose voracious appetite for live coral has laid waste to vast swathes of the coral formations that grow along the reef's 2,300km length.
