Latest news with #Pycnopodia
National Observer
2 days ago
- Science
- National Observer
BC's sunflower sea stars are now endangered, but rays of hope remain
Sunflower sea stars clinging to life in BC's cold-water fjords are officially on the edge of extinction, a scientific advisory panel is warning. A once-abundant predator of the sea floor along the Pacific coast, stretching from Alaska to Baja California, Pycnopodia helianthoides, has been assessed as endangered by the federal Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). While disheartening, the decision isn't unexpected and could offer a margin of hope for the survival of the massive, vibrant sea star, said Alyssa Gehman, marine ecologist with the Hakai Institute. The only type of its genus, an adult sunflower star Pycnopodia (which comes in a variety of purple, orange or pinks) is one of the largest, fastest sea stars in the ocean, often reaching a metre wide with 16 to 24 arms. It has 15,000 tube feet that suspend it off the seafloor and allow it to move more than a metre per minute when on the prowl for prey, Gehman said. 'They kind of look like a hovercraft moving towards their food.' The species has suffered catastrophic population declines of 80 to 90 per cent in the last decade due to a marine epidemic known as sea star wasting disease that causes white lesions on the many-armed creatures before rapidly reducing them to mush. Sunflower sea stars clinging to life in BC's cold-water fjords are officially on the edge of extinction, a Canadian scientific advisory panel warns. The wasting syndrome surfaced in 2013 along with spiking ocean temperatures caused by climate change, Gehman said. The disease attacks other types of sea stars as well, but it's decimated the sunflower variety, pushing them into virtual extinction in California and Mexican waters. Pockets of sunflower sea stars have found some refuge from the disease tucked away in the deep, cold inlets of the BC central coast, Gehman said. However, those remaining populations aren't immune to outbreaks and their chances of survival remain fragile. 'While [being endangered] is clearly bad news, the silver lining is that COSEWIC's acknowledgment might finally generate momentum to save Pycnopodia — whether that's in the form of funding, policy changes, or conservation programs,' Gehman said. The federal ministry of the environment and climate change will examine the committee's report in the fall to consider protecting the sunflower sea star under Canada's Species at Risk Act (SARA). It's illegal to kill, harm or capture wildlife listed under the act. Identifying critical habitat and devising a recovery strategy, complete with timelines and outcomes, is also required for a protected species. 'I hope it's a speedy process because there's real urgency,' Gehman said. 'From a conservation perspective, even though we have these really amazing refuge populations that give us a lot of hope, they're not stable … So, the more we can learn about what is happening with them, the more that can help us to try and conserve the species.' The sunflower sea stars are carnivores that play an important role in ocean health, said Gehman. Their primary prey is sea urchins which, if left unchecked by predators, can mow down kelp forests that offer food and shelter for lots of different marine life. Gehman and other researchers are monitoring between six and 12 fjords to pinpoint the conditions that offer sunflower sea stars the most protection against the disease. Water chilled and churned up by Arctic winter winds channelled into the inlets seems to buffer the impacts, she said. In warmer weather, glacial melt creates a freshwater surface layer in the fjords. Since Pycnopodia don't like fresh water, the sea stars move deeper into saltier, colder water layers, which appears to slow but not completely prevent outbreaks, Gehman said. Typically, sunflower stars in other areas of the coast prefer water temperatures around 16 C. But now it appears that water temperatures must be less than 12 C to limit the spread of the pathogen. 'The disease is actually changing what temperature would be best for them,' Gehman said. The sea stars haven't adapted quickly enough to the disease to consistently avoid warmer waters, which makes understanding the factors at play in their cold-water hideouts critical for their survival, she said. Research is taking place south of the border to breed sunflower sea stars that are more resistant to the wasting disease, so they can potentially be released into the wild to repopulate marine areas. In future, Gehman wants to study other kinds of sea stars — like the purple or orange ochre sea stars on the West Coast— that have better withstood the withering disease in a bid for clues scientists could use to help out their much larger cousins. Identifying and protecting coastal fjords that offer the best conditions for sunflower sea stars is also an important step. Although the Pycnopodia situation is grave, Gehman says she recently experienced a rare and magical moment when the research team witnessed a massive spawning event involving 20 to 30 sea stars, while surveying one of the fjords. 'It's absolutely wild,' Gehman said, The sunflower sea stars have pores that circle the centre of their body. The marine creatures stretch upward on extended arms and arch their bodies, with females releasing masses of pinkish eggs while males emit white clouds of sperm. 'Only the tips of their arms are on the bottom with their middle body tented up into the water column,' she said. 'There were some absolutely giant animals. It kind of looks like there's a halo of pores on them, and everything is pouring out into the water — it's really surreal.' The spawning event is a hopeful sign these cold-water strongholds can offer the endangered species some measure of resiliency from climate change and disease, she said. But the situation remains tenuous and variable, said Gehman, noting on the same trip researchers found sunflower sea stars had been wiped out in one inlet but had bounced back in another. 'So, scientifically, we're learning a lot while also being sad,' she said.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
A rare, giant starfish could hold the key to restoring kelp forests on the California coast
Ashley Kidd signed onto the Zoom call a few minutes late, giddily explaining that 12 minutes ago there was an unexpected development in a planned spawn of critically endangered starfish. Kidd, conservation project manager with the Sunflower Star Laboratory in the Monterey Bay area, was part of a squad set to travel to an aquarium in Alaska, where the plan was to inject the facility's sunflower sea stars with a hormone that would induce spawning. Then, they would freeze some of the sperm of the males there and take that — plus 10 live, adult starfish and larvae — back with them to the Lower 48. But some of the massive, velvety echinoderms began the spawning process spontaneously — three days before the group would arrive. "The nice thing is they had six males go off, and so [with] all that sperm, because we're going to be there on Monday, we can hit the ground running," Kidd said. The mission marks another step forward in a sprawling, multi-institution effort dedicated to recovering the species that scientists didn't realize were key for maintaining healthy kelp forests until they essentially disappeared overnight. Sunflower sea stars — vividly colored creatures with up to 24 arms, and which can weigh as much as a small dog — once thrived along the Pacific Coast between Alaska and Baja California. Then, in 2013, a mysterious disease linked to a marine heat wave began to ravage the population. An estimated 5.75 billion sunflower sea stars perished, amounting to 94% of the global population. California lost about 99% of its Pycnopodia helianthoides to the wasting disease. Sunflower stars landed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's critically endangered list in 2020. Devastation begat devastation, as the ecological dominoes began to fall. The carnivorous sea stars munch on purple urchins and might even ward them off by making them fearful using chemical cues. Urchins devour kelp, which sequesters carbon and serves as shelter and food for a vast array of marine life. Without sea stars to balance the food web, urchin numbers have exploded. On California's North Coast, where other urchin nemeses — like otters, spiny lobsters and sheephead — are lacking, 96% of the region's kelp forests vanished in the decade following the sea star collapse. 'It's kind of like the … 'you don't know what you have until it's gone' adage,' said Norah Eddy, associate director of the Nature Conservancy's oceans program in California. However, she added, if the starfish population could be revived, it could "turn the tide" on resuscitating kelp forests. And there are aspects of the creature's biology that make it a good candidate for that kind of comeback. 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 take significant time and investment. Since its collapse, California's sunflower sea star population hasn't meaningfully bounced back on its own. But in recent years, major strides have been made in breeding the animals in captivity with the goal of eventually releasing them in the wild. A spawning of sea stars on Valentine's Day of last year at the Birch Aquarium at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography marked a significant milestone. It was the first successful induced spawn of the animals in California. Kylie Lev, curator at the Steinhart Aquarium at San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences, said it showed that researchers could facilitate breeding at a level to support reintroduction. A significant number of animals are needed because not all will make it in the wild, she said. "We were all very happy, very surprised and shocked that this first large spawn right out the gate was able to produce so many animals," she said. Institutions up and down the state — including the Academy, Cal Poly Humboldt, Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach and Monterey Bay Aquarium — took in fertilized embryos and were able to raise them into healthy stars that are still going strong. "That kind of changed the perspective around whether or not it could be done to: it can be done, let's make sure it's done really thoughtfully," she added. Andrew Kim, a lab manager at Sunflower Star Lab, a nonprofit that leads research and conservation to recover the species, tilted his computer screen on a Zoom call to show dozens of young stars housed individually — due to rampant cannibalism — in what looked like plastic Tupperware. "They're all full siblings," he said. In fact, all the juveniles in the state are, according to Kim. That's because only one male and one female were bred at the Birch Aquarium last year. That makes them not exactly ideal for releasing en masse. The creatures don't migrate so if they were thrown into a tide pool they might only have each other to mate with, Lev said. In many species, inbreeding can reduce health and fitness. Indeed, one of the key challenges facing the scientists working to reintroduce sunflower sea stars to the California coast is the lack of genetic diversity. Enter the Alaska SeaLife Center, an aquarium with 40 sunflower sea stars — the largest collection of the animals in the world. The researchers will bring 10 of those back to the contiguous U.S., and five will go to the Golden State. That will roughly double the six currently under human care in California. It's a pretty big deal, according to those involved. There were lots of regulatory hurdles that had to be cleared, involving collaboration with officials in Alaska and California. And this transfer of animals from Alaska to California should lay the groundwork for a more fluid transport of sea stars from places such as Washington and Oregon into California down the road, helping to further diversify the population there. Researchers are galvanized by the high stakes. If the keystone species puts a check on urchins, allowing kelp forests to heal, we could recover an economic driver and a powerful tool for fighting climate change. Kelp captures carbon up to 20 times more than terrestrial forests. It's also a home for marine animals; without kelp, many disappeared — felling fisheries that some supported. Releasing lab-raised stars into the ocean is still at least several years away. The infrastructure and know-how for rearing the creatures needs to be beefed up. Key research and logistical questions need to be answered. A biggie is understanding more about the nature of sea star wasting disease and how to build resilience to it among the starfish. Depending on how everything shakes out, Eddy surmises stars could be reintroduced to the Pacific within three to five years. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
11-04-2025
- Science
- Los Angeles Times
A rare, giant starfish could hold the key to restoring kelp forests on the California coast
Ashley Kidd signed onto the Zoom call a few minutes late, giddily explaining that 12 minutes ago there was an unexpected development in a planned spawn of critically endangered starfish. Kidd, conservation project manager with the Sunflower Star Laboratory in the Monterey Bay area, was part of a squad set to travel to an aquarium in Alaska, where the plan was to inject the facility's sunflower sea stars with a hormone that would induce spawning. Then, they would freeze some of the sperm of the males there and take that — plus 10 live, adult starfish and larvae — back with them to the Lower 48. But some of the massive, velvety echinoderms began the spawning process spontaneously — three days before the group would arrive. 'The nice thing is they had six males go off, and so [with] all that sperm, because we're going to be there on Monday, we can hit the ground running,' Kidd said. The mission marks another step forward in a sprawling, multi-institution effort dedicated to recovering the species that scientists didn't realize were key for maintaining healthy kelp forests until they essentially disappeared overnight. Sunflower sea stars — vividly colored creatures with up to 24 arms, and which can weigh as much as a small dog — once thrived along the Pacific Coast between Alaska and Baja California. Then, in 2013, a mysterious disease linked to a marine heat wave began to ravage the population. An estimated 5.75 billion sunflower sea stars perished, amounting to 94% of the global population. California lost about 99% of its Pycnopodia helianthoides to the wasting disease. Sunflower stars landed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's critically endangered list in 2020. Devastation begat devastation, as the ecological dominoes began to fall. The carnivorous sea stars munch on purple urchins and might even ward them off by making them fearful using chemical cues. Urchins devour kelp, which sequesters carbon and serves as shelter and food for a vast array of marine life. Without sea stars to balance the food web, urchin numbers have exploded. On California's North Coast, where other urchin nemeses — like otters, spiny lobsters and sheephead — are lacking, 96% of the region's kelp forests vanished in the decade following the sea star collapse. 'It's kind of like the … 'you don't know what you have until it's gone' adage,' said Norah Eddy, associate director of the Nature Conservancy's oceans program in California. However, she added, if the starfish population could be revived, it could 'turn the tide' on resuscitating kelp forests. And there are aspects of the creature's biology that make it a good candidate for that kind of comeback. 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 take significant time and investment. Since its collapse, California's sunflower sea star population hasn't meaningfully bounced back on its own. But in recent years, major strides have been made in breeding the animals in captivity with the goal of eventually releasing them in the wild. A spawning of sea stars on Valentine's Day of last year at the Birch Aquarium at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography marked a significant milestone. It was the first successful induced spawn of the animals in California. Kylie Lev, curator at the Steinhart Aquarium at San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences, said it showed that researchers could facilitate breeding at a level to support reintroduction. A significant number of animals are needed because not all will make it in the wild, she said. 'We were all very happy, very surprised and shocked that this first large spawn right out the gate was able to produce so many animals,' she said. Institutions up and down the state — including the Academy, Cal Poly Humboldt, Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach and Monterey Bay Aquarium — took in fertilized embryos and were able to raise them into healthy stars that are still going strong. 'That kind of changed the perspective around whether or not it could be done to: it can be done, let's make sure it's done really thoughtfully,' she added. Andrew Kim, a lab manager at Sunflower Star Lab, a nonprofit that leads research and conservation to recover the species, tilted his computer screen on a Zoom call to show dozens of young stars housed individually — due to rampant cannibalism — in what looked like plastic Tupperware. 'They're all full siblings,' he said. In fact, all the juveniles in the state are, according to Kim. That's because only one male and one female were bred at the Birch Aquarium last year. That makes them not exactly ideal for releasing en masse. The creatures don't migrate so if they were thrown into a tide pool they might only have each other to mate with, Lev said. In many species, inbreeding can reduce health and fitness. Indeed, one of the key challenges facing the scientists working to reintroduce sunflower sea stars to the California coast is the lack of genetic diversity. Enter the Alaska SeaLife Center, an aquarium with 40 sunflower sea stars — the largest collection of the animals in the world. The researchers will bring 10 of those back to the contiguous U.S., and five will go to the Golden State. That will roughly double the six currently under human care in California. It's a pretty big deal, according to those involved. There were lots of regulatory hurdles that had to be cleared, involving collaboration with officials in Alaska and California. And this transfer of animals from Alaska to California should lay the groundwork for a more fluid transport of sea stars from places such as Washington and Oregon into California down the road, helping to further diversify the population there. Researchers are galvanized by the high stakes. If the keystone species puts a check on urchins, allowing kelp forests to heal, we could recover an economic driver and a powerful tool for fighting climate change. Kelp captures carbon up to 20 times more than terrestrial forests. It's also a home for marine animals; without kelp, many disappeared — felling fisheries that some supported. Releasing lab-raised stars into the ocean is still at least several years away. The infrastructure and know-how for rearing the creatures needs to be beefed up. Key research and logistical questions need to be answered. A biggie is understanding more about the nature of sea star wasting disease and how to build resilience to it among the starfish. Depending on how everything shakes out, Eddy surmises stars could be reintroduced to the Pacific within three to five years.
