Sea Star

Fascinating facts about the Sea Star

• The common starfish can reach a diameter of about 52 cm, far larger than the usual 10-30 cm range. Most individuals stay within the smaller range, but exceptional specimens grow up to the maximum size recorded. It typically displays orange or brownish hues, sometimes violet, while deeper-water forms are paler. This size and colour variation occurs on rocky and gravelly substrates across its north-east Atlantic range.
• When prying open a mussel, the starfish uses its tube feet to grip each shell valve and apply a slight force that creates a tiny opening. A gap as small as 1 mm is enough for it to push a fold of its stomach inside, where it secretes enzymes that liquefy the mollusc's flesh. Once the tissue is sufficiently fluid, the stomach retracts, pulling the partially digested meal back into the body cavity.
• A single moderate-sized common starfish can release roughly 2.5 million eggs into the sea each spring. The species is dioecious, so each individual is either male or female, and females release the eggs while males shed sperm into the water column. Fertilisation occurs externally, allowing the vast number of eggs to be mixed with sperm. This high reproductive output helps sustain populations despite predation and occasional mass strandings.
• After the eggs are fertilised in the water column, the resulting larvae become part of the planktonic community and remain suspended for roughly 87 days. During this period they drift with currents before finally reaching the seabed where they settle. Once on the bottom they undergo a metamorphic change that transforms them into juvenile starfish ready to begin independent growth.
• In January 2013 a massive stranding event occurred near Cleethorpes Pier on England's east coast, with an estimated four thousand common starfish washing ashore along a single stretch of beach. The sheer density of the animals was such that observers reported they could not walk around because the whole shore was covered in starfish.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia

At a glance

About the Sea Star

In the dimly lit, undulating world of the ocean floor, the sea star, Asterias rubens, moves with a slow and deliberate elegance, its five radiating arms rippling like a dark, velvety cloak as it navigates the rocky terrain in search of its next meal. With a gentle, almost languid pace, it glides across the seaweed-draped boulders, its tiny, suction-cupped tube feet leaving behind a trail of faint, glistening impressions on the stone. As it feeds on the unsuspecting mussels and clams that dot the landscape, the sea star's very existence is a testament to the quiet, unassuming power of one of the ocean's most ancient and resilient creatures.

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