British Sign Language Glossaries of Curriculum Terms

BSL Marine Species Glossary - Common Starfish - definition

Translation:

Many of us are familiar with starfish, they're instantly recognisable because they look like a star. Common Starfish are orange in colour and range in size from 10-30cm but they can grow up to 50 cm. They live in the sea and amongst the rocks. Each limb has an eye on the end of it that enables them to sense light. Starfish don't have a brain, or blood flowing through them, only sea water. The way that they move is incredible. If you pick them up they have lots of clear 'tubes' on the underside that wriggle which are like feet and, using water pressure, they help them move. These triangular, vacuum-cup suckers at the end of each tube foot grasp onto the surface, they contract and relax in waves which move the starfish slowly along. Starfish hunt for food - when they find a mussel they clamp themselves around it and prise it open. They then secrete digestive juices and eat the already half-digested mussel. One extraordinary thing about starfish is that if they are torn in half, both halves can regrow resulting in two starfish!