Saving the Sunflower Sea Star

At Friday Harbor Laboratories on Washington state's San Juan Island, The Nature Conservancy is breeding sunflower sea stars in captivity. This seafloor predator was nearly wiped out in the Eastern Pacific by wasting disease, and in its absence, purple sea urchin populations have exploded, decimating kelp forests from San Francisco to Oregon. Bringing back the sunflower sea star could be the key to restoring healthy kelp forests.
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[@devinecomedy43]

I'll take 10! The urchin are decimating the kelp on my local reef.

[@shambhoosharan9004]

Very admirable efforts.....
Thanks for the information..

[@BrentDurand]

This is so cool. I didn't realize urchins run away from them. Hopefully they bounce back to the stage where us non-scientists can set up time-lapses showing that behavior 🤞

[@daisypekin6787]

don't they destroy many corals?

[@kamikaze2613]

Ive read differently

[@catmousepad7342]

Those are Crown of Thorns sea stars, a different species.