Is this leading up to an assessment of the accuracy of the parable about throwing a starfish back into the sea? (Punchline: "vg znqr n qvssrerapr gb gung bar".)
If you search inside this book for the word "starfish" there's a chapter-length telling of that story (the whole book being an elaboration of the parable), with some concrete details of what happens to stranded starfishes of at least one sort, on at least one beach somewhere.
Anyone know how long a starfish can survive on land, and if it matters especially whether there is a hot sun.
I promise this will turn out to be (at least somewhat) important and Less-Wrong relevant. Googling for the answer gives me a bunch of "wiki-answers" type sites that I don't trust and news articles that don't give me the specifics. If anyone either has marine-biologist cred, or better google-fu than me, I'd appreciate it.