"faux" starfish?

Has anyone found a website or store that sells fake white finger starfish? I'm thinking of making christmas ornament favors with them but am feeling guilty about buying natural, once alive starfish, it seems cruel?

I was concerned about the same thing. I tried to find more info on whether or not it is ethical. I found some sorces that said the starfish are predators of something else. I can't remember what it was. Coral? Anyway, they said that they harvest the starfish to protect this other creature. But this was from a website selling starfish.

I know buying coral is never OK. Also those big trumpetor shells. They are so pretty so people scoop them up to sell & the creatures that live in them can't find homes.

I didn't find a conclusive answer so I decided not to buy any starfish. I also didn't find a good source for fakes. But I haven't spent a bunch of time looking into it.

This might be a lot of work but you could make your own, check this website out.

 

TRIPLE STARFISH MOLD

Those look really cool and really real. If I had the time I would totally make them.

I ended up buying starfish even though I felt bad about it as well. Not sure why, but I decided not to think about it. Now I am feeling bad again. lol

that's really cool, wish I had seen that sooner, oh well!!

I read the same thing. You're right, it's coral that they supposedly eat. I looked everywhere for faux starfish and the cheapest ones I could find were $12 each. I really wanted to put a starfish on everyone's plate with the "starfish poem" (see below) and a note about how we made a small donation to the SPCA in lieu of favors, but it'll be a bit contradictory if I use real starfish, haha.

THE STARFISH POEM

Once upon a time there was a wise man

who used to go to the ocean

to do his writing.

He had a habit of walking

on the beach

before he began his work.

One day he was walking along

the shore.

As he looked down the beach,

he saw a human

figure moving like a dancer.

He smiled to himself to think

of someone who would

dance to the day.

So he began to walk faster

to catch up.

As he got closer, he saw

that it was a young man

and the young man wasn't dancing,

but instead he was reaching

down to the shore,

picking up something

and very gently throwing it

into the ocean.

As he got closer he called out,

"Good morning! What are you doing?"

The young man paused,

looked up and replied,

"Throwing starfish in the ocean."

"I guess I should have asked,

why are you throwing starfish in the ocean?"

"The sun is up and the tide is going out.

And if I don't throw them in they'll die."

"But, young man, don't you realize that

there are miles and miles of beach

and starfish all along it.

You can't possibly make a difference!"

The young man listened politely.

Then bent down, picked up another starfish

and threw it into the sea,

past the breaking waves and said-

"It made a difference for that one."

That's a sweet poem. You should totally do it and make the plaster ones!

I read the same poem but it was about sand dollars. I do think its a contradiction to attach the poem to a starfish that was harvested & therefore killed, you know? I read that poem on a website encouraging you not to buy sea creatures.

 

I'm definitly not judging anyone for buying starfish. I'm just trying to figure out for myself what I'm OK with. If they truely do eat coral & it's better for the ecosystem to remove them then that's understandable. But the same websites that said that was OK also sold sand dollars which are not a predator of coral.

 

I stongly believe in responsible tourism, which is one thing I liked about the the riviera maya area. The area seems concerned with sustaining the ecosystem instead of just making a bunch of tourist dollars.

Just to revisit the topic: Has anyone come up with any more information on this? I really like the idea of using sea stars for our invitations and table assignments, but only if they're harvested ethically. And for the life of me, I can't find any good info on how they're collected!

 

Else, if I wanted to go REALLY DIY, I was considering just buying a few real finger starfish and using them to create a mold. Then, using that mold to cast a bunch of "faux" plaster starfish. What do you all think?

 

-L