A Young Marine Scientist Sees a Large Feather Star in Micronesia! - Observation of the Week, 8/17/20

Our Observation of the Week is this Variable Bushy Feather Star, seen in the Federated States of Micronesia by @marlinleeling!

Born and Raised in Micronesia, Marlin Lee Ling says his father Dana (@danaleeling) “would take us (my two sisters and I) on Frizzles;

basically adventures into the forest to see rivers and waterfalls and other cool stuff. We called them Frizzles because of the Ms. Frizzle Magic School Bus books. My dad teaches Ethnobotany at the College of Micronesia and so on these Frizzle's he would name pretty much every plant in the forest, he could name the scientific name, the English name, and even the name in the 4 main local languages (Pohnpeian, Kosraen, Yapese, and Chuukese)  if that plant had one.

Two years ago, Marlin began studying marine science at the College of Micronesia, got his SCUBA certification, “and from there my interest in the ocean grew.” This summer, Marlin is interning with the Conservation Society of Pohnpei, an NGO protecting the island’s natural resources and habitats. He’s helped conduct coral reef monitoring surveys, and saw the feather star at Pehleng Pass, one of 25 sites being studied. “The channel was full of life from dolphins, to manta rays, to turtles, and the walls were incredible,” Marlin says, “it was like swimming through an underwater canyon.  On that day I also got my first observation of a turtle, something I've always wanted to have.”

While they are echinoderms, feathers stars are unlike the more familiar sea stars in many ways. For one, they are mainly sessile - attaching themselves to a substrate and using their arms to feed on bits of plankton and detritus. They start out with five arms, but those divide into other arms. If an arm is broken, at least two will grow in its place. 

“My dad was the one who introduced me to iNaturalist,” says Marlin (above). “He is a huge fan of the app. He calls it his ‘game’, like candy crush or solitaire, [and] he can spend whole hours sifting through observations of plants and identifying them. 

He began using it in his Ethnobotany class to help the students learn the names of plants. I realized I could do the same thing but for marine life. It's been really helpful for learning the name of fish and corals. For example if I saw a parrotfish, I'd snap a pic and upload it to iNaturalist, it would get identified as a Bleeker's Parrotfish (Chlorurus bleekeri) and so the next time we'd go out diving and saw one I'd be like “Oh, that's a Bleeker's Parrotfish.”. With iNaturalist I'm able to better identify things because a lot of the time ID books use picture perfect photos and when you see the things in the water they don't look exactly like they do in the books, and so over time I learn what certain things actually look like underwater and when I see them I know exactly what they are.

Photo of Marlin was taken by Shanalin Lee Ling, Marlin's sister.

- Feather Stars usually stay in one spot, but they can swim, and when they do so it’s pretty great.

- There are over 1,700 feather star observations on iNaturalist, check them out!

Posted on August 17, 2020 10:05 PM by tiwane