24. How fast can crown-of-thorns starfish move?

The rate at which an adult starfish can move depends on the type of substrate it is attempting to cross. Over sand this may be as fast as 20 m per hr, while over areas of high live coral cover it may be as slow as 0.25 m per hr. Juvenile starfish have been reported to move at rates varying from 0.06 -- 4 m per hr. Whole aggregations of adult starfish have been recorded to travel up to 580 m in a single week. These results indicate that they are very mobile animals capable of moving fairly long distances within a relatively short period.

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