Giant Pink Star (Pisaster brevispinus)

Other Names: Short-spined sea star, spiny pink sea star, pink sea star

Description: Giant pink sea stars are one of the heaviest and largest sea stars in the world weighing up to 10 pounds and reaching up 3 feet long! As their name suggests, this species of sea star is pink in color. The giant pink sea star has a think central disk with five stiff legs, and multiple tiny spines on the top surface that are less than 2 cm in length. 

Habitat: Giant pink sea stars are typically found on soft intertidal surfaces such as mud or sand, along the coast from Alaska to California.

Diet: The giant pink sea stars diet consists of sand dollars, mussels, clams and other mollusks. They are also scavenger feeders, who feed on dead fish and animals. To reach buried prey, these sea stars dig by extending their tube feet into the sediment and pull their prey to the surface. 

Tide Pool Tidbits:

• The giant pink sea star was the inspiration for Patrick Star in Sponge Bob Square Pants.

• It can turn its stomach inside out, in order to digest prey in the shell. 

• Like many other sea stars, the giant pink sea star can preform limb regeneration if the center disc is still intact.

Reference: Biodiversity of the Central Coast