Know Your Neighbours: Kayaking With Northwest Stars

Ochre star. Pisaster ochraceus (ochre star, for the orange color of some). Ochre stars are usually a distinctive and beautiful deep purple (in protected waters) or dull orange (on. exposed coasts). They are about 30 cm across with rigid, stocky bodies and five thick arms. Its the most common sea star intertidally, few of us haven't admired them while launching or cruising along rocky shores. If you learn no other star this year, learn this one - nearly every visitor to our coast asks about it.

Bat Star. Patiria miniata (vermillion colored dish). A rough feeling star with five fat arms. All sorts of different colors - sometimes solid, sometimes mottled. Around 15 cm across. You'll skim over oodles of these near exposed coastlines but they don't like protected waters. The buzzard of sea stars - they gather around dead stuff.

Six ray star. Leptasterias hexactis (little star six ray). They're little and they have six arms. Lots of variations on that theme though fat, thin, dark, bright, all sorts of colors and patterns, Can be very common intertidally under rocks. You won't see any at first, but a bit of effort will reveal tons. Other stars occasionally have six (or more) arms but this little guy nearly always does.

Lather star. (for its texture) Dermasterias imbricata (tiled skin star). Usually mottled with a distinctive orangey brown and greenish pattern, this is the only star on the list that is smooth looking and feeling. About 15 cm but gets up to 30. At and below the low tide line, look for leather stars roaming the rocks and eating things like sea cucumbers, tunicates and anemones. They say the smooth skin smells like garlic.

Sunflower star. (For all its arms) Pycnopodia helianthoides (mufti-legged sunflower). A monster sized (pushing a meter), soft looking star with 15 to 24 arms. Most are a brownish orange; some are purple gray. Occasionally gets caught by low tides but look down - you'll skim over plenty of these common giants. Pause for a minute and watch - this is one of the biggest, fastest sea stars on the planet, a terror of the invertebrate world.

Giant pink star. Pilaster brevispinus (short spined star). Big (to 65 cm), burly and pale pink. Odd combination perhaps, but fairly distinctive. Rarely gets stranded by low tides but look for them just below your boat on soft bottoms where they feed on clams. The size and weight of these solid pink predators are most impressive - the biggest and thickest five armed star you'll see.

Strawberry star. Orthasterias koehleri (straight star). A gorgeous, tasty looking combination of creamy reds and whites that reminds one of strawberry shortcake. Gets fairly big (to 50 cm), with five long arms. Low tide and below on all sorts of bottoms. In three different guides this has three different common names: painted, rainbow, and long-armed

Blood star. Henricia leviuscula (little smoothy). Small (30 cm or less) and variable but with five bright red or orange arms. Smooth looking. Can be common on intertidal rocks. Some females brood their eggs, carrying them until they "hatch". There are related, rarer types of blood star that even scientists can't tell apart.

Striped sunstar. Solaster stimpsoni (sunstar). Ten to twelve arms, usually a beautiful orange with a distinctive gray stripe on each. Occasionally an exquisite purple/blue combination. Up to 50 cm across. A rare treat at low tide, this beauty roams rocky shores eating sea cucumbers.

Vermillion star. Mediaster aequalis (equal middle star). Bright red (vermillion in fact) with large plates along its five arms. To 20 cm. Common just below the surface on low tides but hardly ever high and dry. All bottoms. These are abundant subtidally - you may find plenty after storms or extreme tides.

Rose star. Crossaster papposus (fringed star). Small (to 30 cm), mufti-armed (usually 10 or 11) and rough looking. Concentric rings of reds, whites and in betweens. Very rarely intertidal but can be common just below. All bottoms. A true northerner, found from Puget Sound up through the Arctic and across the North Atlantic to Scandinavia

Cannibal sunstar. Solaster dawsoni (sunstar). Medium (to 50 cm) sized with 11 or 12 arms (occasionally 8-13). Solid brown, orange or gray. Rarely intertidal and common nowhere, look on rocky shores with lots of other types of sea stars. Also called the morning or dawson's sunstar, this is the star that the other ones fear - it eats them.

Sea Stars of British Columbia, Southeast Alaska and Puget Sound - Philip Lambert - UBC
Press 2000; 186p
ISBN 0-7748-0825-X

Combine the world's most interesting and accessible assemblage of sea stars (the Pacific Northwest) with a brand new updated guide to the shallower species (43 of them) and you've got a vacation made in echinoderm heaven. Philip Lambert, curator of marine invertebrates for the Royal British Columbia Museum in Canada, has updated his small black and white text of the 80's - it's now something of a cross between a field guide and a scientific handbook.

The New "Sea Stars of BC." is bigger, longer and colorized. It includes a much needed section of color photography, mostly in situ, to complement the more clinical black and white shots of dried specimens. Rounding out the highlights for visual learners are excellent illustrations of details like plates and spines.

The importance of the color photographs for field id cannot be emphasized enough and I'd have included even more. While doing surveys here I have counted hundreds of individual sea stars and up to sixteen species in less than an hour underwater. Many sites, including shore dives, routinely offer a dozen or more species on a single dive.

The book provides a key to each family with representatives above 200 meters; it takes you to a general family description and individual species accounts. These include description, similar species, distribution, biology and references. The similar species section is new and usually very helpful. The book also lists families and species that occur below 200m as well as those just north or south of the geographic zone covered. Rounding out the species accounts is some basic sea star biology plus a taxonomical checklist, glossary and decent index.

TAKE IT HOME?
If sea stars fascinate you (and they're pretty hard to resist on this coast) then you'll appreciate this book. It is essential to anyone doing research involving Northwest sea stars and is also a great field guide for divers and seashore naturalists.

ISBN 0-7748-0825-X