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.
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.
