The Star Thrower

"The Star Thrower" (or "starfish story") is part of a 16-page essay of the same name by Loren Eiseley (1907–1977), published in 1969 in The Unexpected Universe.

The story describes the narrator walking along the beach early one morning in the pre-dawn twilight, when he sees a man picking up a starfish off the sand and throwing it into the sea.

The narrator is observant and subtle, but skeptical; he has seen many "collectors" on the beach, killing countless sea creatures for their shells.

Some excerpts: In a pool of sand and silt a starfish had thrust its arms up stiffly and was holding its body away from the stifling mud.

"Later, after some thoughts on our relationships to other animals and to the universe, the narrator returns to the beach: ..."On a point of land, I found the star thrower...I spoke once briefly.

It appears unattributed in a 1991 novel by Dan Millman, in which a spiritual seeker asks his wise teacher, "[t]here are so many – how can [throwing each starfish back in the water] make any difference?"

As he came closer he saw that it was a young woman and she was not dancing but was reaching down to the sand, picking up a starfish and very gently throwing them into the ocean.

The young woman listened politely, paused and then bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea, past the breaking waves,