This seastar is an active predator of snails, bivalves, barnacles, and small chitons. It is not feeding on the anemones it straddles here. Diameter about 45 cm. Depth 18 m.
This closeup of a juvenile Pisaster was taken to show details of the seastar's dorsal surface. Blue rings surround pink spines, and tiny yellow pincers, pedicellariae, encircle the rings. Skin gills protrude from dark recesses.
General view of rounded rocky surface, with very colorful organisms. Large 4-leg sea star in foreground. Some small globular sponges, portion of larger white
These nickel-sized seastars hide beneath rocks during the day and forage at night for small invertebrates such as the margin snail Granulina. Females brood dozens of externally fertilizated eggs beneath their tube feet. Development is direct.
Pisaster ochraceus, generally known as the purple sea star, ochre sea star, or ochre starfish, is a common starfish found among the waters of the Pacific Ocean and along most of athe Alaskan Western shore. It has wasting disease as seen by the decay of tissue.
