During the 19th century, New England oystermen often found
in their . 
The starfish (now called sea stars) were predators of the oysters
and even liked to
eat them all up. If the ...
... could kill the starfish, there would be more oysters and more
in their 
.
... Or at least they so they thought.
The oystermen used a
on the starfish and threw the pieces back into the sea. If anything, the
starfish population seemed to grow and grow and even get bigger.
Soon, even more starfish were
captured, cut and 
into the Atlantic.
This continued until a helpful
saw what
was happening.
Each starfish
could re-grow into a
new starfish. The lesson of the
was that instead of decreasing the 
population,
the oystermen were causing the sea stars to regenerate asexually
and increase in numbers.
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