The Northern Pacific Seastar - Asterias amurensis – is an invertebrate marine organism, which is deemed as a large predator, being sized between 40 to 50 centimeters in diameter (MESA, 2015). It can live up to five years, and in appearance the seastar has red and purple pigmentation along its arms, while the remainder of its body is yellow Refer to picture to right). Running down the length of each arm are irregularly arranged spines with a row from each joining together in a fan like formation to structure the mouth. The spines also line the vertical groves in which the tube feet lie, where the arms join directly in the middle of the star to form the central disk. Other distinct characteristics that set the Northern Pacific Seastar apart from other seastars include its purple, upturned dorsal tips at the end of each arm, where other seastars…show more content… The organism tends to prefer shallower environments, and protected areas along coasts such as estuarine, intertidal, and coastal zones that eliminate high wave action and strong currents (Shah & Surati, 2013). More favored habitats include temperate, saltwater, coastal and brackish water, as due the seastar can live in many varied environmental conditions, such as water salinity and temperature (Stevens & Rudnick, 2010).
Behavior
The Northern Pacific Seastar is known for being a carnivorous, voracious predator, preying and feeding on bivalves, gastropod mollusks, barnacles, crabs, crustaceans, worms, echinoderms, ascidians, sea urchins, sea squirts, and other species of seastar. However there have been instances where cannibalism has occurred due to a particularly low food source in a certain area, where survival is then primal (Shah & Surati,
