Oysters Object

The mystery of the starfish is how he can be such a successful foe of clams and oysters. He attaches his sucking "tube-feet" to a bivalve, opens it, inserts his mobile stomach, eats and digests his victim. But apparently the starfish lacks the strength to open an oyster. In doing that job, a human being usually appreciates the aid of a knife. The force required was reported in Science last week by Professor Albert Moore Reese of West Virginia University. He pulled oysters and clams apart with a large spring scale attached to steel hooks inserted in notches cut in the bivalves' shells, and he found them pretty rugged.

One oyster withstood a pull of three pounds (more than a starfish's estimated strength) for 40 hours, did not open until a 22-lb. pull was applied. Another oyster held on against 30 Ib. Several clams stood 25 Ib. before their shells, not their muscles, broke. One oyster withstood a 3-lb. pull for five days before opening one-fiftieth of an inch, for eight days before opening a quarter of an inch (a tight squeeze for even a hungry starfish's stomach).

Dr. Reese offers no solution. Among the guesses: either a starfish has "unbelievable endurance," or has some means of paralyzing an oyster as soon as there is a slight opening.

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