Starfish « Daily Photo « Photography by John Biehler

Starfish

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Shot in Half Moon Bay, Sunshine Coast, BC
October 2003
Camera: Pentax Optio 450

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5 Jan 2010 at 10:12 PM Derek K. Miller

That’s Pisaster ochraceus, the common ochre sea star round these parts. They come in purple and orange colours (and range in between), and if I recall my marine biology degree correctly, purple predominates at the northern end of its range (where we are, up to Alaska), while orange becomes more common down the coast to California. That’s probably because purple is more common on less-exposed coastlines, which we have more of here in the land of fjords, but no one’s quite sure why the colour difference matters.

I was considering getting a tattoo a few years ago, and if I had, it would have been one of these sea stars. But I never got around to it.