Asterias amurensis
| Northern Pacific Seastar | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Echinodermata |
| Class: | Asteroidea |
| Order: | Forcipulatida |
| Suborder: | Asteriadina |
| Family: | Asteriidae |
| Genus: | Asterias |
| Species: | A. amurensis |
| Binomial name | |
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Asterias amurensis Lütken, 1871 |
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Asterias amurensis, also known as the Northern Pacific seastar and Japanese common starfish, is a seastar native to the coasts of northern China, Korea, Russia and Japan. This species has been introduced to the oceanic areas of Tasmania, southern Australia, Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, parts of Europe, and Maine. Based on the distribution of northern Pacific seastar populations in shipping ports and routes, the most likely mechanism of introduction is the transport of free-swimming larvae in ballast water for ships. The ships suck in the ballast water containing seastar larvae, in a port such as one in Japan, and let it out in a port such as one in Tasmania, the larvae come out with the water, and metamorphose into juvenile sea stars.
It has become an invasive species in Australia and is on the Invasive Species Specialist Group list of the world's 100 worst invasive species.
Invasions breed extinctions. It is vital to monitor ecological impacts from invasive species, because they can cause economic or even human health impacts. A surge in this species’ population will affect the populations of its prey and throw off normal balances in the current trophic web of Pacific coast areas. Experimental evidence has concluded that the predatory star has a major impact on juvenile bivalves. The asteroid will also attach itself to salmon traps, oyster lines and scallop longlines. In Australia, it was connected to the decline of the endangered handfish. American ecologists must pay close attention to the implications of this invasive species. As trophic webs change over time, the endangerment and loss of certain marketable sea organisms cause coastal communities to potentially lose billions of dollars. In Japan, the sea star’s population outbreaks have cost the mariculture industry millions of dollars in control measures and losses from predation.
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Wikipedia