Some Frequently Asked Questions about Starfish

Are StarFish good to eat?
An exercise for you to try at home: Think of every good tasting meal you have ever had. Wrack your brains and think of every picture you have ever seen of people eating. Note that there are no starfish anywhere in sight.

Are Starfish really shaped like stars?
No, not unless you think stars have 5 triangular points and look like those drawings you made in kindergarden.

(Asteria Forbesi)
So why are they called "Starfish"?

Because it's easier to remember for us non-biologists than Asteria Forbesi (Which is of course the technical name for the starfish commonly known as The Common Starfish) Of course, technically, I have no idea why it's called a starfish not something more accurate like pentarma or something, but my as near as I can tell guess is because one of most common varieties of starfish (The aforementioned Asteria Forbesi ) looks like the stereotypical elementary school art class stars - you remember, the ones you drew when you were learning the importance of commonly shared uniform artistic representations of visual images and concepts? As for the "fish" part? I guess they are called that because they live in the ocean, which as everyone knows is where "fish" live and since they don't look like a crustacean or a mollusk then they must be a fish, right?. But hey, since whales used to be called "fish" I guess it's not all that much of a stretch to call another non-shelled creature a fish(tm). Kind of. By the way, speaking of mollusks, did you know that a starfish can rip open a clam and eat the occupant? I sleep better at night knowing that the odds of them mutating into a 15 foot large variety capable of travelling over land and strong enough to rip the tops off of automobiles is "extremely" rare(fortunately for all of us deep sea divers, the largest clams are vegetarians)

I don't know. But of course I don't know why people put crocheted little-bo-peep dolls over the spare roll of toilet paper either. My guess (re: dead starfish) is that it's some kind of unconscious metaphorical sound association between the flushing water and the sounds of waves.

Yes, unless you are going for the dead-animal-as- fashion-accessory motif for home or yard decorating. (hey some people even go for the dead animal as clothes look, but of course some people object to using animals as fashion accessories)

I dunno, you can throw them back, but I would imagine that the shock of slamming into the ocean after being flung through the air wouldn't do much for their biosystems - especially if they are busy dying in their seasonal dying time and are already close to death. If you've heard ever heard the heartwarming story of the starfish flinger you may of course disagree with me. I am sure many people would disagree with my theory.

No, I did not make it up. Yes, it is a real story which occurs many times on the net in various flavors. Just for fun, check out one or two or three or more of these or for a real hoot try a search on 'Starfish' and 'fling' and 'morning' in your favorite web searching tool ( Lycos, Excite, Yahoo, AltaVista, etc). You might be suprised at how many places you can find this same story. But then again you might not be.

1. Smell it (if it's been dead very long you will know it)
   
2. See if it moves (Turn it over and watch it's little cilia-like thingies, if they don't move in several minutes it's either dead or not alive. Hmmm...Although come to think of it ...I guess one that wasn't moving could be sleeping I guess. I had thought it a little unlikely that random travel jostling was sufficient to explain how all those dead starfish in my trunk ended up piled into an almost perfectly formed starfish pyramid reaching right up almost to the lid of the trunk!) 
   
3. Examine it for signs of decomposition. (What are the S.O.D. you ask?)
   
1. Strong, really foul smell that smells almost as if something is dead and decomposing.
   
2. A slight "blurriness" (like when you take your glasses off) around the edges of the starfish. (if the edges of the starfish aren't quite distinct you may have some decomposition occurring.)
   
3. Faded, washed out color. If it looks like the starfish equivalent of a corpse that's been floating dead in the water for several days (bloated and pale), it may in fact be a starfish corpse that has been floating in the water for several days.

Fine with me.

I don't know. As a souvenir? As a conversation piece? As a visually appealing work of art/nature reminding you of the beauty of life as well as the death? As part of a dead sea-life exhibit for your bathroom? You just like collecting dead things?

How come the same variety/species of dead starfish have very different amounts of color in them, is this an individual identification aspect?

Note: This picture has nothing to do with the text
that follows and would, it seems even be
leading one to a conclusion which is quite
different from the one the answer to this
question is trying to impart.  

I originally thought so but after having a bunch of dead starfish in my apartment for a few days I noticed that the lighter ones tend to be *really* dead, while the darker ones are more newly dead and one aspect of deadness as it relates to death (at least in the case of dead starfish) is that there is a close correllation between deadness and odor.

Haven't you been paying attention? See above. One word. "They are dead!"

You can try laying them out on a newspaper in the hot sun for a few days which should pretty much dry them out.

No, most definately not. Trust me.

I have heard that a cleansing bath with water and bleach(mixed together) will remove much of the smell, however you still have the problem of having one or more wet soggy starfish corpse(s) sitting on the counter in your kitchen. (There may of course be other methods that might work as well.)

Well, one could try the usual methods for drying out dead animal corpses (e.g. hair dryers, ceramic coil heaters, wrapping them in layers and layers of absorbent paper towels, etc) but I would recommend the oven.

Um...you can't use my microwave to try to dry starfish. You are welcome to use your own for whatever you want.

Heat the oven up till it's hot, place the starfish on newspapers on cookie sheets and turn the oven off after placing the pans of starfish inside. If you have a gas oven with a pilot light just leave them inside for a few days. I left them for a weekend and they seemed pretty dry when I got back...of course I switched from newpaper to foil before I left so nothing flammatory would happen in my absence.

Yes.

No, actually I was pleasantly suprised to find that neither the apartment nor the oven hardly smelled at all. Ok, well they didn't smell of starfish at least.

No, but since I don't bake all that often I don't think the two facts are related.

Where else can I find out about starfish?

I am glad you asked...

http://vose.placo.com/starfish.htmlhttp://vose.placo.com/starfish.html

For some cool pictures of starfish and other marine lifeforms take a look at ...

http://www.mbl.edu/html/MRC/HTML/echinodermata.html

And more to come soon....

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You can contact me at starfishman@oocities.com.

This page last updated on February 1, 1999.

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