For about a decade now, sea stars have been dying at extraordinary rates. They’re being killed by something aptly dubbed “sea star wasting disease” because they quite literally waste away into a ...

Before 2013, divers on North America's west coast rarely saw purple sea urchins. The spiky animals, which are voracious kelp eaters, were a favorite food of the coast's iconic sunflower sea stars. The ...

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Rebecca Vega Thurber, University of California, Santa Barbara (THE CONVERSATION) ...

From sea star wasting disease, more than 90% of the sunflower sea ... Removing the kelp alters light levels below, leading to changes such as turf algae growth in place of filter-feeding invertebrates ...