The group representing marine park tourism operators says it is likely to lobby the Federal Government to reinstate a full-time taskforce to manage the crown of thorns starfish.
Col McKenzie, from the Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators, says operators in the Whitsundays have noticed an explosion in starfish numbers in the region, with Bait and Knuckle reefs badly damaged.
Significant rainfall over the past three years is being blamed for an increase in the pest.
Mr McKenzie says the reefs around the Whitsundays cannot sustain the current infestation.
"We need to do something about it or it'll just eat all the coral out on those particular reefs," he said.
"The unfortunate thing is those reefs are used by tourist operators to show people how magnificent the Great Barrier Reef is, so it makes a lot of sense for us to do something with that.
"You certainly can't deal it with by the resources of the operators, they just do not have the capacity to deal with something like this and so we will probably be looking to try and start a full-time crown of thorns team like we had about four years ago, which was fully government funded."
A report is likely to be presented to the Government in the next fortnight.
