The terror of the tide pools, sunflower stars eat anything and everything. This one was moving towards a live dungeness crab as we watched it, even though starfish do not feed out of water. Starfish feed by pushing out their stomachs and digesting their food without ever having to in-take it. Thanks to my friend Celso Reyes for taking photos when my camera was out.
The sunflower sea star (Pycnopodia helianthoides) is a large predatory sea star usually with 16-24 limbs called rays. It is the largest sea star in the world. Sunflower sea stars can grow to have an arm span of 1 m (3 ft.) in diameter. The color of the sunflower sea star ranges from bright orange, yellow and red to brown and sometimes to purple, with soft, velvet-textured bodies and 16-24 arms with powerful suckers. Most sea...
