Pamela Dear, age 11, of Edison, N.J., for her question:

DO STARFISH HAVE EYES    

First of all, a starfish is not really a fish. He belongs to a group called  echinoderms. He is also called a sea star.

Most starfish have five arms although some have none at all and others from four to 50.    

Starfish have an endo skeleton made of calcareous plates embedded in the flesh. Even with the armor they can bend and twist in a most flexible way. Their plates are linked by connective tissue and are not fused as in many other animals in the starfish's family.

Does the starfish have eyes? No, although he does have an "eyespot " at the end of each arm and can distinguish between light and dark.

Special tube feet on each arm are used for smelling. Respiration happens through short filaments on the dorsal side. They act as gills and are protected by pincers. Three central nerve rings send nerves out to each arm.

Starfish eat clams, oysters and mussels. They are able to eject, or throw out, their stomach to cover and digest the soft parts of these sea creatures. The stomach is then returned to place. This strange and unusual eating habit is not found in any other animal.

The strange stomach can get into the narrowest crack. Excretion is rarely necessary since the starfish predigests his food.

Starfish have a water vascular system in which water is forced'into many rows of tube feet. Suckers on the ends of them let the animal attach itself to objects. They can exert a seven pound pressure on a closed clam and, since they have great endurance, they can easily outlast the clam.

Starfish are able to grow missing parts, a process called regeneration.    

Hundreds of starfish were removed from oyster beds by oyster farmers before they understood the process of  regeneration. They chopped the starfish into small pieces and threw them back into the water. Soon the pieces regenerated into whole animals and the oysters were attacked by thousands of hungry predators.