SHALLOW-WATER STARFISHES 5 



search of food or to seek more congenial temperatures in deeper or 

 shallower water, or for other reasons, such as breeding habits. 



In Long Island Sound it is a common experience of the oyster 

 cultivators to find that many thousands of starfishes (Asterias for- 

 besi) suddenly appear on certain oyster grounds which had been 

 nearly or quite free of them a few days previously. If undisturbed 

 for a few weeks they may destroy thousands of bushels of oysters 

 and then as suddenly disappear from the devastated grounds, to visit 

 some other locality. 



In the autumn, September to November, as I have myself 

 observed, year after year, at Outer Island, of the Thimble Islands 

 group, in Long Island Sound, they migrate upward from deeper to 

 shallower water, and may then be found in myriads on rocky 

 shores between tides, where none were to be seen a few days before. 



At such times large numbers are often caught and destroyed in 

 the interests of the owners of oyster grounds in the vicinity. In 

 some seasons a boy, one of my grandsons, often caught during low 

 tide two or three bushels, morning after morning, on one small 

 island, up to a total of fifteen or sixteen bushels, and more still came 

 up every morning. These were mostly not more than half-grown 

 and a bushel would usually count up to 1,000 or more. The same 

 operation was carried on at many adjacent islands by others, with 

 similar results. The effect of this wholesale slaughter was said to 

 have notably decreased the loss of oysters on the oyster grounds of 

 the district during the next year. 1 



At this time the starfishes were feeding mainly on the young 

 oysters of the season, which had " set " thickly on all the rocks and 

 ledges, below half-tide, but they were also, in many cases, feeding 

 on the rock barnacles (Balanus balanoides), which were also abun- 

 dant on the rocks. 



Later in the season they disappear, going into deeper water to 

 avoid freezing temperatures. 



I have repeatedly tested their rate of travel, on the shores of 

 Outer Island. By placing a hundred or more in a small pool of 

 water left by the tide at about half-tide mark, it was easy to 

 ascertain how far and in what directions they would travel during 



1 Immense numbers of this same starfish are also taken in Long Island 

 Sound and other oyster-growing waters by dragging " tangles " or " swabs " 

 over the oyster beds, as first recommended by the writer in 1873 and 1876. 

 A single oyster steamer by this means has often taken twenty-five barrels 

 or more in a short time. 



