Aaron—thanks for sharing a poetic and moving story.
There is a dark downside to this narrative.
Starfish are predators that eat mostly shellfish (mussels, clams, oysters) -- typically 3-5 times their body weight per day, meaning they’re consuming 2-8 shellfish a day. They use suction-cupped feet to pull the shell apart until the shellfish tires out, and a tiny gap opens. Then the starfish extrude their ‘cardiac stomach’ out of their mouth, into the shell, and uses various enzymes (proteases, lipases, and amylases) to digest the shellfish’s soft body, which can take a couple of hours. I imagine this is not a happy time for the shellfish, insofar as they might be sentient.
Starfish live 5-30 years, averaging maybe 10 years. So, during one lifetime—assuming 10 year lifespan x 365 days/year x 5 shellfish/day—one starfish may be eating about 18,000 shellfish. Each of which dies after a long, exhausting struggle to keep its shell closed, and then being gradually dissolved by enzymes over a couple of hours.
If shellfish are sentient, that’s a significant amount of suffering each starfish may be imposing.
So, for each starfish a girl ‘saves’ (and assuming she’s saving it about halfway through its life), we may be condemning about 9,000 shellfish to an prolonged, excruciating death.
Is the starfish-saving girl a hero, or a villain?
Does it depend on whether a starfish is 9,000 times more sentient than a shellfish?
I don’t know. But. when analyzing how interventions affect total ‘wild animal suffering’, in complex ecosystems, we have to be careful about which victims we may be overlooking.
Weirdly, I arrived at this comment just after rereading an internet horror comic that begins with a starfish eating someone alive. I hope shellfish aren’t sentient.
TBH, I may have also been biased against starfish by the scene in ‘Suicide Squad’ (2021) of the superheroes fighting ‘Starro the Conqueror’, the giant alien kaiju starfish.
Aaron—thanks for sharing a poetic and moving story.
There is a dark downside to this narrative.
Starfish are predators that eat mostly shellfish (mussels, clams, oysters) -- typically 3-5 times their body weight per day, meaning they’re consuming 2-8 shellfish a day. They use suction-cupped feet to pull the shell apart until the shellfish tires out, and a tiny gap opens. Then the starfish extrude their ‘cardiac stomach’ out of their mouth, into the shell, and uses various enzymes (proteases, lipases, and amylases) to digest the shellfish’s soft body, which can take a couple of hours. I imagine this is not a happy time for the shellfish, insofar as they might be sentient.
Starfish live 5-30 years, averaging maybe 10 years. So, during one lifetime—assuming 10 year lifespan x 365 days/year x 5 shellfish/day—one starfish may be eating about 18,000 shellfish. Each of which dies after a long, exhausting struggle to keep its shell closed, and then being gradually dissolved by enzymes over a couple of hours.
If shellfish are sentient, that’s a significant amount of suffering each starfish may be imposing.
So, for each starfish a girl ‘saves’ (and assuming she’s saving it about halfway through its life), we may be condemning about 9,000 shellfish to an prolonged, excruciating death.
Is the starfish-saving girl a hero, or a villain?
Does it depend on whether a starfish is 9,000 times more sentient than a shellfish?
I don’t know. But. when analyzing how interventions affect total ‘wild animal suffering’, in complex ecosystems, we have to be careful about which victims we may be overlooking.
I feel like the original story, together with your comment, form a really beautiful encapsulation of what EA is.
Thanks, appreciate it!
I’ve always loved the back-and-forth give-and-take of EA discourse, and the quantification mindset.
All good points!
Weirdly, I arrived at this comment just after rereading an internet horror comic that begins with a starfish eating someone alive. I hope shellfish aren’t sentient.
TBH, I may have also been biased against starfish by the scene in ‘Suicide Squad’ (2021) of the superheroes fighting ‘Starro the Conqueror’, the giant alien kaiju starfish.