Where would we be without sea stars (formerly known as starfish)?
For any kid or beachcomber, encountering a sea star is infinitely luckier than finding a horseshoe. Each is unique, owing to the many California species and their individual life histories.
Tragically, over 90% of these winsome creatures have been wiped out along our coast due to sea star wasting disease (SSWD).
Sunflower stars (Pycnopodia helianthoides) are now extinct in the Santa Barbara bight. The world’s largest, they feature 16 to 24 arms, each with a span up to a meter.
Sunflower stars are weirdly equipped with 24 eye spots, no brain, and a stomach they can extrude to digest prey on the outside.
Reuven Bank, executive director of Sunflower Star Labs, calls them “one of the closest things to an alien you can find on earth.
Their importance as a top predator is huge, especially in their appetite for sea urchins.
Sunflower stars are described as the “cheetas” of the intertidal and subtidal zones. They gallop at a speed of up to a meter a minute, then use thousands of tiny underside suction cups to grab prey.
They regenerate arms when necessary to pursue meals such as sea urchins, snails and clams.
Sea stars’ population crash in 2013 and 2014 was one of the largest marine animal population failures on record. Five billion stars turned into goo almost overnight.
The bacteria causing SSWD, recently identified as Vibrio pectinicida, is not new but has spread rapidly in the warming ocean.
The failure of sea stars means that kelp have disappeared, threatening the entire marine environment.
The domino effect of the stars’ failure is dramatic.
Sea urchins, rid of a primary predator, gorge on kelp. Ninety-seven percent of California’s kelp cover was lost in the past decade.
While beachgoers may have appreciated “cleaner” beaches, the lack of kelp has serious consequences.
Kelps produce half our planet’s requirement for oxygen, sequester carbon, and house up to 800 species. Kelp beds tamp down wave action, diminishing shoreline erosion.
As we gaze languidly on a lovely undulating sea surface, the scene below is catastrophe: an urchin wasteland replacing the once-healthy kelp forest.
Recent data reported by Harrison Tasoff in UCSB’s The Current show that in the past half century, “nearly 90 percent of the excess heat from climate change was absorbed by the oceans, not the atmosphere.” The marine environment is bearing the brunt of climate disruption.
The results are dire and widespread. One is thriving bacteria like the Vibrio pectinicida dissolving sea stars.
Another is domoic acid, the neurotoxin produced by overactive algal blooms. These “red tides” have caused seizures and high mortality rates for brown pelicans, sea lions, and other marine mammals.
Excess ocean heat is also the culprit in bird starvation, as their prey moves deeper for cooler waters.
Against this apocalypse are small but mighty marine restoration efforts like Sunflower Star Labs. Founded by Vince Christian, an avid diver, artist and scientist, the Moss Landing-based lab is dedicated to recovering sunflower stars and restoring balance to the kelp forest.
The lab leads novel research and sunflower sea star aquaculture. They raise over 30% of the sunflowers under human care. The goal is to nurture sea stars resistant to the deadly bacteria.
Can the stars withstand all that humankind throws at them before we clean up our act? Will the nursery stars survive release into the Pacific Ocean? Will they survive the hotter ocean temperatures and be healthy enough to restore and protect the kelp?
If so, we’ll thank our lucky stars — and the scientists and conservators working hard on our behalf.