Each weekday this Summer Seven Seas Scuba is bringing you ocean related trivia, information, and fun! Check out today's entry on our Facebook.
CRITTER TRIVIA TUESDAY. We dive to see cool critters, so on Tuesdays we will be bringing you interesting facts on some of the critters we can see while diving! Do you know this critter:
When threatened, this critter is capable of excreting a thick mucus from its sieve plate (also called the madreporite) located on the top surface of its body. It has been noted the slime apparently tastes very bad (what I want to know is WHO tasted it to make this notation!!) And that's right folks you read it here. This creature "snots" its potential predators!! This critter can be found from the Bering Sea to Carmel Bay, CA.
..."madreporite" – I think I got my mouth washed out with soap for saying that word when I was younger...
And the answer is the "CUSHION SEA STAR" (Pteraster Tesselatus), otherwise known as the "Slime Star."You can read more about this starfish here: http://www.seastarsofthepacificnorthwest.info/species/slime_star.html.
