Category: Invertebrate
Phylum: Echinodermata
Class: Asteroidea
Family: Asteriidae

Notes
Starfish have a sieve plate full of tiny holes, seawater is sucked through this plate and is for respiration and to inflate the tube feet. The tube feet often have suckers at the tip and serve as as walking legs.The apricot seastar is found in large numbers on the Otago shelf. It feeds on bivalves which it pulls open using its tube feet. Once the shell is open, the star pushes its stomach into the bivalve, secretes digestive enzymes, and absorbs its meal on the spot!. Seastars are famous for their ability to regenerate armsbut what is less commonly known is that if the missing arm has a piece of the central disc of the seastar attached to it, then the arm will grow a new seastar. A large arm with a regenerating star is called a comet


References
A Guide to the Plants and Animals of the New Zealand Marine Studies Centre: McKinnon