The sunflower sea star is a big starfish — more than 3 feet across — that roams the ocean floor in orange, yellow and purple. These invertebrates can grow as many as 24 arms, ...

The sunflower sea star is a big starfish — more than 3 feet across — that roams the ocean floor in orange, yellow and purple. These invertebrates can grow as many as 24 arms, ...

A baby sunflower sea star at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) However, she added, if the starfish population could be revived, it could "turn the ...

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

One of the biggest starfish is easily the sunflower sea star with a 39-inch diameter. Sunflower sea stars have between 16 and 24 arms and can be virtually any color.

SAN FRANCISCO — For the last decade, California’s offshore seafloors have been missing a massive, colorful predator that keeps kelp-munching sea urchins in check. The sunflower sea star is a ...

In 2013, sea star wasting syndrome made its way up and down the coast. Today, the Sunflower Star Laboratory in Moss Landing is working to bring the species back to the bay.

The return of kelp forests in northern California will depend in part on the return of sunflower stars, a kind of starfish that were decimated by a disease in 2013 and never returned. Momentum is b… ...

Bringing back sunflower sea stars, which are functionally extinct in California, could help restore kelp forests off the coast, researchers say. A rare, giant starfish could hold the key to ...

Today, the Sunflower Star Laboratory in Moss Landing is working to bring the species back to the bay. ... “I thought starfish were the only kind of (sea stars)” said Nikhil Koneru, 11.