Volunteers hope efforts to remove invasive northern Pacific seastar will make a difference

For 26 years, Benni Vincent has captured her underwater diving expeditions on camera.

But while she loves snapping the different creatures she encounters, there is one species that has become an all too familiar sight.

“The starfish are just loaded. Stacked on and stacked on,” she said.

The animal she is referring to is known as the northern Pacific seastar, an invasive predator that made its home in Hobart’s River Derwent more than three decades ago.

Since its first detection…