CHOKING AN OYSTER TO DEATH.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 664, 29 April 1914, Page 7

CHOKING AN OYSTER TO DEATH.

The most destructive enemy of the oyster particularly in North Atlantic estuaries and river mouths is the starfish. Often these fivc-fingcred creatures move in veritable armies from oyster bed to oyster bed,, and literally wipe out ths molluscan population over wide areas. The oysters, though unable to get away, would be safe against the attack! o? starfish were it not for the clever expedient which the latter adopts. It literally wraps itself about the shall of the bivalve, in such a manner as to starve it—the result being that sooner or later the oyster 'is~ 01-lpsed' to open its shell. When this happens, the starfish has it at its mercy, and pushes its stomach in between tha valves of the mollusc, the substance of which it absorbs at gluttonous leisure. Then having finished its repast, it seeks another oyster to devour. < Years ago, fishermen, wh;re starfishes are very numerous and destructive, were accustomed to cut in halves and throw overboard those which they fetched up in their dredges. This method of procedure was discontinued, however, when it was ascertained that each half-starfish thus disposed of became a whole one by, growing new parts upon the mutilated body.