My guest today is Andrew McCracken, a current PhD student at the University of Vermont. Andrew is on a quest along with his fellow marine biologists to discover possible answers to a pending crisis for these fragile creatures known as starfish - or more accurately, sea stars. I wanted to begin by hearing his thoughts on why this ancient creature has held such fascination for people all over the world.

My guest today took a highly unusual path to the sea. Anna Conathan is a standup comedienne, actor, television comedy writer, life-coach, and most recently a working stern man on a commercial lobster boat. She’s also a mom – so it’s clear that Anna is a multi-talented, multi-faceted woman whose love of fishing – and the sea - has captured her imagination.

Today, I want to talk about some unfinished business. In an earlier episode titled, “Men, Fish and Moby Dick” I got to spend time exploring Herman Melville’s impetus to write his great novel about Captain Ahab and his battle with the massive whale, Moby Dick. There’s another famous fish in literature that has always fascinated me – one created by Ernest Hemingway.

In “The Old Man and the Sea” published in 1952, Hemingway wrote about a down-and-out fisherman, named Santiago, from a small village in Cuba - and his epic three days and two nights battle with a giant marlin.

Earlier this summer an article in the NY Times caught my eye – and it made me think of Hemingway’s tale. It is another story of men and fish – really BIG fish.