Where Crown-of-thorns starfish has been recorded
GBIF occurrence records for Acanthaster planci, mapped and tabulated by country.
7,696 georeferenced occurrence records with coordinates are published for Acanthaster planci through GBIF, from 69 countries or marine areas. This page maps those records and lists where they come from. Occurrence records reflect where people have looked as well as where the species lives, so well-surveyed coastlines are over-represented.
- Georeferenced records
- 7,696
- Countries / areas
- 69
- Mapped locations
- 377
- Records sampled for the map
- 3,000
- Inland records omitted
- 39
- Gbif taxonkey
- 2271208
Countries and areas with the most records (GBIF)
Australia — 3,788 records; French Polynesia — 830 records; Mexico — 337 records; United States of America — 279 records; New Caledonia — 252 records; Fiji — 229 records; Indonesia — 186 records; Thailand — 181 records; Philippines — 152 records; Solomon Islands — 146 records; Micronesia (Federated States of) — 120 records; Maldives — 100 records; Papua New Guinea — 80 records; Palau — 69 records; New Zealand — 67 records.
Source: GBIF Occurrence Search (taxonKey 2271208) — https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/search?taxon_key=2271208&has_coordinate=true (records CC0 / CC BY). Accessed 2026-09-23.
Marine regions with a WoRMS distribution record
West Indian Ocean; Mascarene Basin; Eastern Africa & Madagascar; Red Sea; Kenyan Exclusive Economic Zone; Aldabra; Seychellois Exclusive Economic Zone; Chagos; Cargados Carajos; Mozambican Exclusive Economic Zone; Madagascar; Tanzanian Exclusive Economic Zone; Mauritian Exclusive Economic Zone; Palau Islands; New Zealand Exclusive Economic Zone; Kermadec Islands; Western Indian Ocean; Pacific Ocean; South Africa; Maldives; France; Goa; French part of the Mediterranean Sea - Western Basin; Panamanian part of the North Pacific Ocean; Costa Rican part of the North Pacific Ocean.
Source: WoRMS distribution records (MarineRegions) — https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=213289 (CC BY 4.0). Accessed 2026-09-23.
How to read this map
The map plots a sample of 3,000 of the 7,696 records, deduplicated to a half-degree grid, so dense areas do not merge into one blob. The sample covers 55 of the 69 countries or areas with records; the areas absent from the sample hold 91 records in total (Kenya, Madagascar, Wallis and Futuna, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Comoros, Kiribati, France).
39 records plotting inland were omitted: for a marine species those are almost always the holding institution's coordinates rather than a collection site.
Records show where the species has been observed and reported, not a modelled range.
Source: GBIF Occurrence Search (taxonKey 2271208) — https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/search?taxon_key=2271208&has_coordinate=true (records CC0 / CC BY); WoRMS distribution records (MarineRegions) — https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=213289 (CC BY 4.0); Natural Earth 110m basemap — https://www.naturalearthdata.com/ (public domain). Accessed 2026-09-23.
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