Viral sea star that looks like Patrick from ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ calls Long Beach’s Aquarium of the Pacific home
A Long Beach sea star that folks say resembles the character Patrick Star from “SpongeBob SquarePants” is getting a flash of fame this week.
A photo of the pink sea star that appears to have a noticeable butt – posted by Twitter user @Babyshoujo – garnered hundreds of thousands of shares and likes online since it was posted Sunday, June 30. (That link has a few, uh, cheeky retweets and references that may offend some readers. Pun intended.)
But don’t fret, SpongeBob fans: Bikini Bottom isn’t actually in Long Beach. The sea star actually lives at the Aquarium of the Pacific.
The aquarium on Tuesday, July 4, confirmed the photo was taken at its facility, home to more than 400 sea stars.
The Twitter post says “Saw a thicc (expletive) starfish at the aquarium today.”
“It’s a middle school level joke but I’m sorry that I’m ‘sexualizing starfish,’” the user, who goes by Akari, said in the comment thread. “My sister was like ‘(oh my God) look’ and I thought ‘haha looks like it has a butt.’” (Sic.)
The Twitter user did not respond to a request for comment.
Others on Twitter posted photos of the sea star – altering the photo with a face and flowered board shorts – alluding to its likeness to the humorous cartoon character from under the sea.
The species in the photo is one of 41 vermilion sea stars at the Aquarium of the Pacific, said Nate Jaros, the aquarium’s curator of fish and invertebrates. Instead of living under a rock in Bikini Bottom, this sea star lives in the deepwater exhibit at the aquarium’s Northern Pacific gallery, which was created last year.
The species is native to North America’s West Coast.
As for why the sea star appears to have a rear end, Jaros said, it’s is because it’s on a vertical rock face with two of its arms holding the rock and two arms hanging in a relaxed position.
“We have seen this before when our sea stars have recently eaten and are in this vertical position,” Jaros said. “When a star that hasn’t recently eaten is in a vertical position, this effect is not apparent.”
Jaros added that he hopes the popularity of the photo turns to the importance of sea stars in the ocean, the threats they face in their ecosystem and ways people can further ocean conservation.
Some ways folks can do that, Jaros said, is by not purchasing dried, dead sea stars found in souvenir shops. And to also be respectful of sea stars, by not picking them up at the beach.
Patrick Star, meanwhile, did not return requests for comment about his doppleganger. (Because he’s fictional.)