[1][2] Leptasterias polaris occurs in the north west Atlantic Ocean from the Gulf of Maine northwards, and in Arctic waters.

Young individuals are mostly found on rocks less than 10 metres (33 ft) deep and feed on such bivalve molluscs as the blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) and Hiatella arctica.

Older individuals move to deeper waters where the seabed is sand or mud and feed on clams such as the Greenland cockle (Serripes groenlandicus), Spisula polynyma, the blunt gaper (Mya truncata) and the Atlantic jackknife clam (Ensis directus) which they dig up with their tube feet.

They also eat gastropod molluscs such as the common whelk (Buccinum undatum) and the American pelicanfoot (Arrhoges occidentalis).

Hungry starfish which had not fed for two months, worked their way across the current until their olfactory tube feet, located near the tips of their arms, smelt an edible prey item after which they begin to travel up-current towards the source of the odour.