Our impact on reef conservation
We create value from reef protection. Our business grows when culled crown-of-thorns starfish are put to use.
A circular business model
We intend to create a business model where conservation goes hand in hand with commercial returns to the local community, creating an industry, local employment and economic opportunities. Our value chain has four steps:
- Collect. Crown-of-thorns starfish are removed through a combination of Leap Biotech's collection, local communities, tourism and conservation efforts.
- Process. We extract and purify biomaterials using our proprietary process.
- Standardise. We produce consistent, high-quality marine biomaterials.
- Sell. We supply B2B ingredients, research products and finished skincare.
Every step captures more value from a resource that is currently treated as a pest. Reef protection gains a commercial return, industry gets consistent, traceable materials and local communities get employment and new economic opportunities, creating a circular economy.
What this means for the reef
- Removal gains an economic value. A starfish taken off the reef becomes a raw material, not waste, adding commercial return to the process.
- Control becomes more sustainable over time. Commercial demand for COTS can help support long-term reef-protection work alongside existing conservation efforts.
- Supply stays linked to conservation. We only use starfish that are being removed as a pest.
What this means for local communities
Our model creates local employment and new economic opportunities. We aim to base collection and processing close to the reef, so the jobs sit in reef communities. These are jobs that exist because the reef is being protected, and they help build a sustainable regional industry.
Beyond the Great Barrier Reef
Crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks have been recorded in at least 25 other countries and territories: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan and Israel in the Red Sea; the Maldives, India, Tanzania, Comoros, South Africa and the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean; Japan, China, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia in Asia; Papua New Guinea, the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, French Polynesia and American Samoa in the Pacific; and Mexico in the eastern Pacific. See our sourced list of outbreaks by country.
Given the extent of the problem, we are creating a global model that can be used in any hotspot, wherever a solution is needed for the COTS problem. We will begin our pilot in Australia and Fiji, with the aim of perfecting the process so it can be deployed in other regions.
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