Sunflower sea stars are the biggest starfish on the planet: They can measure up to 3 feet (0.9 meters) across. They’re also the fastest variety, using their 24 arms to race across the seafloor ...

The loss of sunflower sea stars is a factor particular to the northeast Pacific, according to the study led by Oregon State University and The Nature Conservancy, and aided by marine data gathered ...

He cited what happened about 10 years ago in California. As the sea star population quickly depleted, a heat wave hit the coast. With the predatory sea stars gone, the urchin population flourished.

From 2017-2022, researchers estimated that 5.75 billion sunflower stars, over 90% of the species died from the sea star wasting disease and are considered functionally extinct in California ...

Between 2013 and 2017, an illness known as "star wasting disease" decimated their population, killing up to 99% of them in Southern California. The Sunflower sea star ...

Sunflower sea stars – among the largest in the world and whose habitat stretches from Alaska’s Aleutian Islands to Mexico’s Baja Peninsula — were listed as critically endangered in 2021.

Sunflower sea stars can move at a high speed — as far as sea stars go — traveling about 3.3 feet per minute. A Sunflower Star crawling through kelp on the Washington Coast. randimal/Getty Images ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. (KOIN) — Oregon State University researchers found little evidence that genetics play a role in some sea stars staying healthy while dealing with a deadly disease and climate ...

Saving a species: UW scientists release first lab-grown sea stars The threatened species has dwindling numbers, and Friday Harbor scientists have spent the last five years growing sea stars in a ...

Saving Oregon’s rocky coast: Checking in on the sea stars By Kate Kaye ( Jefferson Public Radio ) Cape Blanco, Ore. Feb. 23, 2021 1:30 p.m. Updated: March 9, 2021 9:53 p.m.

Climate change helped to kill most of the world’s sunflower sea stars. Resurrecting them could revive carbon dioxide-sequestering kelp forests.

Disease nearly wiped out sunflower sea stars about 10 years ago, and University of Washington scientists are using the lingering population to save the species. Skip Navigation.