Dauin, Negros Oriental, Philippines
Hawkfish, filefish, wrasses, even cuttlefish…you name it, we’ve seen them all munching on our feather stars in the field! But these are rare sightings. Despite having seen more than 33,000 injured feather stars, we’ve only caught a handful of predators in action, like this defiant Hawkfish protecting the remnants of its feast of feather star arms (dark features seen in background). Why don’t we see more of them attacking feather stars during surveys? Because they hear us before we see them.