Purple sea urchins, beware: There’s a purple urchin-eating predator on the horizon — and its name is the sunflower sea star.

The Sunflower Sea Star is a dinner-plate sized starfish that’s native to North America’s Pacific Coast. Since 2013, their numbers have plummeted.

The sunflower sea star looks a lot different from the typical five-arm species, she said. They can have two dozen arms and grow so large that their middle part, the disk, ...

A sunflower sea star is seen on the ocean floor. These sea stars, some of the biggest in the world, can have up to 24 arms and can measure 3 feet in diameter. (Photo provided by National Park Service) ...

The sunflower star (Pycnopodia helianthoides), a beautifully colored species in bright orange, yellow, or purple hues, was the largest and fastest of the local sea stars, and with its 20+ rays (or ...

The sunflower star (Pycnopodia helianthoides), a beautifully colored species in bright orange, yellow or purple hues, was the largest and fastest of the local sea stars, and with its 20-plus rays ...

Earlier this week, the sunflower sea star was listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which maintains a “Red List of Threatened Species”.

A healthy sunflower sea star is seen on the seafloor in 2014. (Photo by Ed Gullekson/Washington Department of Fish and WIldlife, provided by NOAA Fisheries) One of the world’s largest sea stars ...

A sunflower sea star in the waters off B.C.'s coast. More than 90 per cent of the species' wild population has been wiped out by a wasting disease. (Grant Callegari/Hakai Institute) ...

Tue, 06 May 2025 14:58:08 GMT (1746543488490) Story Infinite Scroll - News3 v1.0.0 (common) 4d1ee3725204269f37a0f19cbbd23231c184013c ...

Government officials proposed Wednesday to list the sunflower sea star, once a common sight on the Pacific coast and a key species for Oregon’s nearshore ecosystem, as threatened under the ...

It wasn’t that long ago that Oregon’s sea stars were doomed. In 2014, scientists were working quickly to identify the mysterious wasting disease that had already killed off millions of sea stars along ...