The Pacific Blood Star
L-R, U-D: a wild specimen clung on a rock at low tide, Victoria, BC. A small individual in the process of limb regeneration, Deception pass, WA. A beached specimen displaying color contrast against substrate, Clallam bay, WA. Pictures by me.
A bright red beauty often spotted along sheltered beaches of the American west coast, the blood star, belonging to the complex Henricia, is not one species, but rather a complex of closely related stars found in the Pacific Ocean ranging from Baja California up to northern Alaska.
These slender, bright vivid carmine seastars can range in color from a deep red to a light orange. They feast on a variety of demosponges and bacteria, which it sweeps into its mouth via ciliated tracts. Like all stars, it also has the unique ability to eject its stomach, which it may use to feed on small sponge and bryozoans by melting them with its acid!
These stars can be found up and down much of the west coast of North America, though different subspecies inhabit different regions.
They can usually be found under cobbles, attached to rocky reefs, or in tide-pools from the intertidal zone up to 400 meters deep! Waow! What an interesting creature!