As stated earlier, many problems were encountered when investigating the potential use of several compounds as a method for removing starfish from spat collectors. Some recommendations have been formulated to help ease further research.
Firstly, obtaining and experimenting with mussel spat, as opposed to the larger mussels used in the calcium hydroxide trials, would ensure results that are informative about the practicality of this method. Obtaining spat collectors already covered in mussel spat from farmers would be optimal, as this would best simulate the real world conditions.
Starfish removed from these spat collectors could also be used in the experiment, as they have already shown they will attach to the mussels.
Though the previous recommendation would likely go a long way to eliminating some of the problem encountered, a field study would ensure the elimination of these obstacles. The starfish would already be present on the spat collectors, along with the spat. It would also be the most straightforward way of assessing the feasibility of this method in the real world. However, this type of study would be difficult to quantify, as the mussel mortality would be nearly impossible to calculate. Both of these methods would be vast improvements on the methodology of this study.
Lastly, it is recommended that more research be carried out on this topic. Though the preliminary results are not very plentiful, and have error skewing them, they still provide a compelling argument to continue investigation. Removing starfish from spat collectors is an important step in near shore mussel production in The Netherlands. Being able to do this simply by spraying spat collectors with highly concentrated solutions of common salts would be a very useful process for mussel farmers, reducing costs, labour, and the amount of time invested.