Purple sea urchins, beware: There’s a purple urchin-eating predator on the horizon — and its name is the sunflower sea star. That’s the plot line coming from a small upstart research facility in Moss ...

Already, the new kelp is helping the ecosystem show glimpses of its former self. During a recent dive, a plump sunflower sea ...

THERE HAS BEEN A SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGH AND A LOCAL MARINE BIOLOGY LAB PLAYED A KEY ROLE. THE "SUNFLOWER STAR LAB" IN MOSS LANDING IS REPORTING ADVANCEMENT IN WHAT IS CALLED "SEA STAR CRYPTO ...

In this photo provided by the Hakai Institute, researcher Alyssa Gehman from the Hakai Institute counts and measures sunflower sea stars in the Burke Channel on the Central Coast of British Columbia, ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. While they have no backbone, sunflower sea stars (Pycnopodia ...

The sunflower sea star (Pycnopodia helianthoides) can be found throughout intertidal and subtidal coastal waters of the northeast Pacific Ocean, from Alaska to at least northern Baja California, ...

It was the beginning of a sea star wasting disease outbreak that would nearly wipe out all the sunflower sea stars along the coast. Their disappearance, combined with a massive marine heat wave called ...

Billions of sea stars have wasted away in recent years, their crustose, spiny bodies melted to goop by a mysterious illness known as sea star wasting disease. The culprit behind this epidemic has ...

Scientists have finally unravelled the decade-long mystery behind the devastating epidemic that has killed more than five billion sea stars off the Pacific coast of North America. The breakthrough ...

A mysterious illness has killed billions of sea stars in the past decade. After a four-year search, scientists have uncovered the culprit: a bacterium known as Vibrio pectenicida. The team reported ...

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) ...