Starfish

Fascinating facts about the Starfish

• A sea star can push its stomach out through its mouth, slide it between the shells of a mussel, and digest the prey from the outside — then retract the stomach back into its body. This grotesque feeding strategy lets them eat prey too large to fit in their mouth, and they can repeat it dozens of times a day.
• Lose an arm to a predator on Monday, and by next year you'll have a new one. Sea stars regenerate lost limbs in 12 months or less, but the process demands 3 to 4 times more energy than maintaining their body — which is why many stay motionless for weeks while healing, essentially shutting down to survive.
• Sea stars have no brain, no blood, and no heart. Instead, a fluid-filled cavity pumps seawater through their arms, and nerve nets scattered across their body let each arm act independently — so a severed arm can crawl on its own for hours, responding to light and smell without any central command.
• The ochre sea star was nearly erased from the Pacific Northwest by a wasting disease between 2013 and 2016, vanishing from about 95% of monitored sites in some areas. Their collapse sent shockwaves through kelp forests, where sea urchins exploded in population and ate the kelp down to bare rock — revealing how a single predator holds an entire ecosystem upright.
• A sea star's tube feet work by hydraulic pressure: each foot is a tiny piston of muscle and suction cup that grips rock using water pressure alone. They can walk at speeds up to 1 metre per minute across vertical surfaces and reefs, powered by nothing but controlled fluid flow — the simplest hydraulic system in nature, and one that has stayed unchanged for over 450 million years.

At a glance

About the Starfish

As the tide recedes, a starfish emerges from the shadows, its delicate, almost ethereal form unfolding like a slow-moving flower across the rocky substrate. With a gentle, unhurried pace, it navigates the intricate labyrinth of crevices and pools, its tiny, tubular feet rippling in a wave-like motion as it searches for unsuspecting morsels to devour. In this quiet, underwater world, the starfish reigns as a master of subtle, incremental movement, its very existence a testament to the beauty of patience and persistence.

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