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The feeding behaviour of starfish on Essex oyster beds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

D. A. Hancock
D. A. Hancock
Affiliation:
Fisheries Laboratory, Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex
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Summary

Laboratory and field observations were made on the food and feeding of the starfish in relation to its role as a predator on oyster beds in the rivers of Essex, particularly in the river Crouch.

Asterias rubens was found most likely to be associated with large numbers of Crepidula, the most serious competitor of the oyster.

Laboratory experiments showed that although Asterias occasionally ate spat and adult oysters, the greater part of its food was made up of organisms which are competitors of the oyster. The smaller sizes of Asterias ate large numbers of barnacles, with occasional spat of oysters and Crepidula. The larger occasionally ate oysters and oyster spat, but almost always exhibited a preference for mussels and, in the absence of these, for Crepidula, and sometimes even for Urosalpinx.

Some observations were made on the method and rate of feeding and distribution of Asterias and Solaster papposus, and certain aspects of the feeding behaviour of the stone crab, Hyas araneus.

It was concluded that Asterias is not such a serious enemy of the oyster as was previously supposed, and that under certain conditions, its presence may be beneficial to oyster culture.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , June 1955 , pp. 313 - 331
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1955

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