A single breeding pair of sunflower stars can potentially produce thousands of offspring — many mouths to chomp down on urchins. By comparison, bringing a single otter back to the ecosystem can ...

Sunflower sea stars are beautiful, often purple or pink, and kind of squishy. But they are also, at least as sea stars go, big. They can have 20 arms, and grow to the size of a dinner plate or larger.

Since 2013, the disease has killed 90% of sunflower stars worldwide, leading the species to be declared critically endangered. Alyssa-Lois Madden Gehman at the Hakai Institute in Campbell River ...

In 2013–14, one of the largest marine disease outbreaks on record decimated sea star populations along the West Coast, turning over six billion Sunflower Stars into goo and rendering them functionally ...

While the exact cause of the disease is unknown, scientists say it's had major ripple effects, as sunflower sea stars eat sea urchins and perform an important role in keeping those populations in ...

Get Instant Summarized Text (Gist) The highly endangered sunflower star has found refuge in Canadian fjords, where cooler waters may protect it from sea star wasting disease (SSWD). Surveys along ...

Researcher Alyssa Gehman from the Hakai Institute counts and measures sunflower sea stars in Burke Channel on the Central Coast of British Columbia in this undated photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO ...