Thanks for the support! Series has now finished, but is being replayed on Saturday arvos at 4.30.
Quote:
maybe a short talk to say that this is one of the scourges within the bay with the potential to destroy the fishery may have been a "marketing" point for the show
They were 11 armed sea stars. Totally native, but commonly confused with the introduced species (which only has 5 arms and usually has purple tips on each arm).
A few years ago a SCUBA diver collected 5 garbage bags of 11 arms from around the Portarlington Pier and called the local newspaper claiming that he had caught bags on the introduced pest. Got him mug and his catch on the front page with massive headline about the "Scourge of the Bay". Everybody went out killing these native sea stars thinking they were doing a good thing