Purple Sea Star

This is a small view of a series of large rocks at low tide on the Oregon coast.  The purple sea star which is a color variant of the ochre sea star is one of more spectacular denizens of the intertidal zone.  The overall population of these keystone predators has crashed due to heat stress and a viral disease that has killed 1000's of these organisms.  I only saw 5 of this species in covering an acre of intertidal rocks. K5 IIs 180 mm f3.5 (1/80 sec at f11, ISO 800)........................Jim