After the second young person to see the orange sea star on the rock above called out happily, “It's Patrick!”, I finally found out they were referring to the five-armed, orange companion to that yellow, pant-wearing cartoon sponge who lives under the sea. That's what I get for being old enough to have missed the SpongeBob SquarePants phenomenon, and for not having any of my own kids since SpongeBob splashed into Saturday morning cartoons. (And yes, I had to Google how to spell his name.)
These Ochre sea stars come in a variety of colors from orange to purple, brownish, or reddish. They are extremely tolerant out of water and can be exposed to the air for up to six hours.
Commonly miscalled star-fish, sea stars are in fact, not fish. Along with sea urchins and sea cucumbers, these Ochre stars are part of the phylum Echinodermata.
Echinoderm means “spiny skin” and if you've ever touched one of these prickly creatures you know why they were named that.
The underbelly, or under arms as it were, of these sea creatures is covered in rows and rows of tiny tube feet. These small appendages help sea stars suction to rocks, and allow them to move and feed.
Ochre sea stars eat shelled animals like barnacles, snails, chitons, limpets and mussels. I wonder if Patrick would be as beloved if his young admirers knew that in order to eat he pries open the shell of a mussel and extrudes his stomach into the opening. The meat of the mussel will literally be dissolved and eaten within its own shell! Yum. Yet without the predacious sea stars, mussels like the ones above could take over entire tide pool habitats.
The mussels have one thing in their favor - sea stars smell. It's likely the mussels to the right of the orange sea star above will detect their predator's scent and will stay closed up tight even when the tide rises again.
Aww ... pretty. Art found in nature is indeed inspiring. How could we not be star struck?
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