How do we dry out a dead starfish? We've never lived anywhere near an ocean, but we are now less than 2 hours away from the Pacific. We recently went to a beach that had lots of tide pools. There were lots of starfish. We would never bother the live ones, but my son found a dead one. We know it was dead because it wouldn't attach itself to any thing, and we asked the ranger about it. He agreed it was dead and said we could take it home.
I put it on a rack on the patio and put a screen over it to keep the flies off. It didn't dry out, it just sort of got soft and mushy. We will be going back to the beach several times this summer and may find another one. My son was disappointed this one couldn't be kept, so I'd like to know what to do next time.
Thank you to everyone for their responses. I live in a tiny apartment, so I don't think using the oven would be a good thing (LOL)! However, next time we find a dead starfish, it will be properly preserved. Just a note--I would NEVER harm a living creature.
We live at the beach in Mass. My husband is a fisherman & gets lots of starfish. The ones that you find in tidepools around here, or in the waves at the ocean cannot make it back to deep water & will die. You can just leave them in the sun to dry up, and you can out them into a bleach & water bath for a few minutes to whiten them & to clean thoroughly after they are dried.
I put mine in the oven on like 200 and kept checking till it dries, but I will warn you it does make your oven smell bad so you will need to clean it after you're done good luck!
When it's a really hot day (or time of year) they will dry out when placed in the sun on a piece of mesh wire (like an old screen) and allowed to just lay there. It'll probably smell for awhile so put it away from the house.
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