More than a decade ago, a “mysterious illness” hit the sunflower sea star population. The disease, known as sea star wasting syndrome, decimated 95% of the creature’s population in 2013, leading to ...

SAN DIEGO — Scientists with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance made science history after dozens of larvae of a critically endangered sea star species were hatched using new innovations in ...

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 ...

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 big starfish — more than ...

Love is on the brain for Melissa Torres. She is part of the team working to save the beautiful, but critically endangered, sunflower sea star. “Gorgeous, purple, brown, pink, the sea stars are so ...

Sunflower sea stars, the largest of sea stars, were formerly common in tide pools in Oregon. However, this species has ...

Over the past decade, the sunflower sea star has gone from a mighty predator of the Pacific Ocean floor to nearing extinction. The Nature Conservancy estimates that 5.75 billion sunflower sea stars ...

The Sequoia Park Zoo’s 15th Conservation Lecture Series continues Wednesday at 6:45 p.m. in the zoo’s Flamingo Room at 3414 W St. in Eureka. Cal Poly Humboldt faculty members David Sinn, Rafael Cuevas ...

There are so few of the sunflower sea stars remaining, researchers don’t think there are enough for them to find each other on their own to reproduce – so the species is getting a helping hand from ...

Sunflower sea stars, a species of giant starfish, are critically endangered. Researchers tinkered with sperm in an aquarium lab to help them reproduce. A Sunflower Sea Star at the Birch ...