Common Starfish

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Lore & Background

Living Coasts opened to the public on 14 July 2003, built on the site of the former Torquay Marine Spa. As of 2011 it was being visited by over 100,000 visitors a year. The zoo featured a covered giant aviary 19 metres (62 ft) at its highest point with a total volume of 1.8 million cubic feet (51,000 m3). Inside the aviary, aquarium tanks had a total capacity of 1,214 cubic metres (321,000 US gal). The Local Coasts exhibit was themed on the underside of a classic English pier and was home to native marine species including seahorses, starfish, edible crabs, and others. Living Coasts was a member of BIAZA, EAZA, and WAZA. On 16 June 2020, Wild Planet Trust announced the permanent closure of Living Coasts due to its costbase, need to make efficiencies and inability to afford required substantial maintenance. Homes were found for all animals by 19 June 2020.

In Their Own Story

The Local Coasts exhibit at Living Coasts recreated the underside of a classic English pier, providing a habitat for native marine species including starfish. Visitors could observe these echinoderms alongside other local wildlife such as seahorses, starfish, and edible crabs. The exhibit was part of a larger facility that included a Discovery Zone (opened March 2008) with interactive penguin computer game stations called Penguin Academy, and a Mangroves exhibit (opened July 2009) featuring large aquarium tanks with over 20 species including three types of sting ray. Living Coasts also offered special programs including keeper-for-a-day experiences, penguin feeds, and for certified SCUBA divers, a 45-minute swim with the penguins.

Reader's Guide

The Common Starfish was displayed in the Local Coasts exhibit at Living Coasts, which was themed on the underside of a classic English pier. This exhibit was part of a coastal zoo that also featured a covered giant aviary, a tropical mangrove swamp, and underwater viewing areas. The zoo was home to many other species including common cuttlefish, octopus, penguins, seals, otter, atlantic mudskipper, puffin, inca tern, common tern, seahorses, black necked stilt, starfish, kittiwake, ray, jellyfish, common redshank, pufferfish, pied avocet, pigeon guillemots, common guillemots, crabs, ruffs, red lionfish, lobster, banded archerfish, Scatophagus argus, mullet, Barrow's goldeneye, bank cormorant, common murre, anemone, beetles, tompot blenny, chough, orange chromide, shore clingfish, death head cockroach, leopard gecko, goby, stick insect, silver moony, oyster catcher, pipefish, sea urchins, blue baboon spider, corkwing wrasse, longtailed duck, bristletail filefish, bearded reedling, wolffish, blacktailed godwit, black rat, and scoter.

Did You Know?

• Living Coasts was Britain's first and only coastal zoo.
• The zoo opened on 14 July 2003 and closed permanently on 16 June 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The Local Coasts exhibit was themed on the underside of a classic English pier and housed native marine species including starfish.
• Living Coasts was home to the oldest African penguin in the UK, named Pat, before he was euthanized in 2015 at age 37.
• The site had a covered giant aviary 19 metres (62 ft) high with a total volume of 1.8 million cubic feet (51,000 m3).