Ryan and the Sea Star

If you look closely, you can see Ryan very gently craddling a starfish.  (Don't worry, it is now very safely back in the ocean where it belongs!).    

Oddly enough, there is a campaign to change the name of these unusual creatures from starfish to seastar, because - yup, you guessed it, they are not actually fish!  They are echinoderms, closely related to sand dollars and sea urchins. 


These carnivorous invertebrates have a life span of up to thirty five years and they are really quite curious little things as they actually have no brains and no blood!  Their nervous system is spread through their arms and their 'blood' is actually filtered sea water and, despite their small size of between 12-24cm, they can actually weigh up to 11lbs.  That is a lot of filtered sea water!   

There are some 2,000 species of sea star living in all the world’s oceans, from tropical habitats to the cold seafloor. The five-arm varieties are the most common, hence their name, but species with 10, 20, and even 40 arms exist.  However, cute and harmless they may be, I can't see Ryan holding a 40 armed seastar!