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Ochre Sea Star in Puget Sound

Ochre Sea Star in Puget Sound. Common name: Ochre Sea Start or Purple Sea Star Scientific Name: Pisaster Ochraceus. What the Ochre Sea Start looks like. The sea star has five stout rays that range in length from 10 to 25 centimeters

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Ochre Sea Star in Puget Sound

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  1. Ochre Sea Starin Puget Sound Common name: Ochre Sea Start or Purple Sea Star Scientific Name: Pisaster Ochraceus

  2. What the Ochre Sea Start looks like • The sea star has five stout rays that range in length from 10 to 25 centimeters • Most are purple but they can be orange, orange-ochre, and brown • The star contains many small spines (ossicles) on the middle part of the creature. • The ossicles grow no higher than 2 mm • The legs or the tube feet have suckers on their distal ends which allow them to attach to rocks and live in heavily wave-swept areas

  3. What the Ochre Sea Star eats mussels  sea snails barnacles chitons limpets sea urchins

  4. How the Sea Star eats • When an Ochre Sea Star eats, it pries open a tiny crack in a shell fish, then inserts its whole flexible stomach into the shell and slowly digests and sucks out the animal. • The process can take 2 or 3 days.

  5. How it produces • Does not need a partner to produce • Fertilization occurs in the water column • The reproductive system consists of a pair of gonads branching into each ray off a circular genital strand which is along the oral inner surface of the central disc

  6. Size • Ranges from 15 to 36 cm in diameter • Arms reach up to 10 to 25 cm

  7. Habitat • Can be found in great numbers on mussel beds and on wave-washed rocky shores • The juveniles are often found in crevices and under rocks • Its depth range is from above the low-tide zone to 90 m in depth • They are very durable and can tolerate a loss of thirty-percent of its body weight in body fluids • Can find them in locations such as the Puget Sounds and areas in California. Mostly on the east coast

  8. Interesting Facts • Ochre Sea Stars are a favorite food for otters and some sea birds • When the tide goes out, their skin and arms become stiff and hard, for protection from predators • When the tide comes back in and covers the Sea Stars, their arms become soft and flexible again so they can move around • These animals can be exposed to air for up to 50 hours if they are in the shade or among moist algae • Many live to a minimal age of four to six years and could live as long as twenty years

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