Sea
Stars
 Sea
stars (group name Asteroidea) are often called starfish,
though they are not actually fish. They lack vertebrae and fins,
common attributes of fish. Sea stars are echinoderms, radially symmetrical
animals found only in the sea. Other species of echinoderms include
sea cucumbers, sea urchins, sand dollars and other creatures.
Sea stars often
have five arms, or rays, but there are species that have more, as
many as 21 rays. These species include the sun stars and the sunflower
stars. Sunflower stars are the largest sea stars in the world, sometimes
as large as three feet across with 21 arms, and they're abundant
in our paddling area.
Sea stars eat
sea urchins, mussels, barnacles, anemones and sea cucumbers, and
walk around on thousands of little tube-feet on their underside.
Each ray of a sea star has a light-sensitive "eye," through
which they can detect light and its general direction.
 The
common sea stars we see on our paddling trips are Ochre sea stars,
Vermilion stars, Leather stars and Sunflower stars. We often spend
time paddling by the shore to view the colorful spectacle on the
rocks at low tide, or just below the surface at higher tides.
The northwestern
North American coast is home to the most diverse sea star population
in any temperate waters on earth. Philip Lambert, in his book Sea
Stars of British Columbia, lists 36 species of sea stars in
British Columbia alone. The simplicity and beauty of sea stars is
always a delight, and a very memorable part of all our sea kayaking
trips.
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