If I were a Dungeness crab and saw this thing coming at me, I’d make a run for it. Sea stars are varied and common in the Salish Sea, but this giant predator, the sunflower star, is the largest star in the world. Unlike a common ochre star that seems rigid because of a linked internal skeleton, sunflower stars seem not to have this and so are very limp, almost droopy when picked up. Some might not even be able to be picked up, as the largest are a yard wide and wouldn’t even fit in a bushel basket. They’re big animals and one of the speediest sea stars around. Colors can be purplish to orange, some are darker purple to reddish brown – the mouth side (bottom) is always paler. Younger animals start life with 5 arms, just like most other stars, but as they grow, arms are added to ‘fill in’. Some can have up to 24 arms and look like a, well, gigantic sunflower.

Sunflower stars will eat just about anything, alive or dead, and their speed means they can run down creatures like crabs or other slower prey. It’s easy to spot these animals in shallow water from shore or a shallow-draft boat. They can travel 6 to 9 feet a minute, a rather amazing speed for a sea star. This speed means it can also travel rather amazing distances and some have been tracked upwards of two miles from initial tagging. Most sea stars first cover their prey, then the stomach protrudes to envelope the meal. This one just swallows it whole. Dinner can include other sea stars, urchins, many types of crustaceans and even octopus. You can often tell when it’s eating by a big lump on the top side. Turn it over and you might see part of a crab sticking out of the star’s mouth.

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