Blood Star (Henricia leviuscula)

Description: Blood stars have five long and thin cylindrical arms. They are relatively small compared to other sea stars, rarely growing larger than 12 cm across. As their name suggests, blood stars have a red-orange color that appears very vivid but can also range to a pale orange color. Like other sea stars, they move using hundreds of tiny feet with suction cups called tube feet.

Habitat: Blood stars range from the coast of Alaska to Baja California, Mexico and can be found along the coasts of Japan. They prefer to live in the lower intertidal around plenty of rocks.

Diet: The diet of blood stars is primarily sponges or small particles that are captured from their surface. 

Tide Pool Tidbits:

• They are frequently found with a scale worm living on its body.

• The only predators to blood stars are humans and birds. Humans do not eat blood stars, but are attracted to them due to their vivid color and sometimes take them as souvenirs, killing the stars.

References: Walla Walla University, The New Beachcomber’s Guide to the Pacific Northwest by J Duane Sept