Bellingham Bay's Monster Starfish
A local fisherman hauls in a record-breaking sea creature from the pilings of an old wharf.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A few days ago a youthful fisherman, while amusing himself trying to catch some of the hundreds of starfish which cling to the piles of the old wharf, managed to catch the king bee of the whole outfit. The boy hooked him and hauled him safely onto the wharf, where he proved the attraction of quite a crowd for some time. The fish was a monster, at least in this neighborhood. He possessed fifteen tentacles, weighing seven pounds, and measured seventeen inches from point to point. This is the largest starfish ever captured on Bellingham Bay.
“He possessed fifteen tentacles, weighing seven pounds, and measured seventeen inches from point to point.”
While likely viewed as a curiosity in 1891, the description of a fifteen-tentacle starfish highlights the rich, sometimes strange, biodiversity of the Salish Sea that local communities have always centered their identity around. It serves as a reminder of the quiet, natural wonders observed by early settlers along our waterfronts.
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