All Hope is not Lost for Sunflower Sea Stars

When someone thinks of sea stars, they might think of orange, five-armed stars in a tide pool. However, the truth is that sea stars come in many different shapes and sizes. For example, according to the SeaDocSociety, sunflower sea stars can have up to 24 arms. And sunflower sea stars are very important to kelp forest ecosystems. However, according to NOAA Fisheries, a very large chunk of their population started to die out about thirteen years ago. Luckily, a discovery in the ocean near California shows that these sea stars might make a comeback.

About how sunflower sea stars are important to kelp forests, sea urchins eat kelp, and if there are too many sea urchins, there will not be enough kelp. This in turn would harm other marine species who rely on kelp for various things. Kelp also help gets rid of carbon dioxide, just like plants on land, which helps the environment. Luckily, sunflower sea stars eat sea urchins, so as long as there are sunflower sea stars, the kelp forest and its inhabitants will be fine.

About how the sunflower sea star population went down, according to NOAA Fisheries, the sunflower sea star population decreased because of sea star wasting syndrome. According to the US National Park Service, sea star wasting syndrome is caused by a type of bacteria, and it causes various strange things to happen to sea star, such as making their arms fall off, or making parts of their bodies fall apart. Sea star wasting syndrome can eventually cause sea stars to die. This is bad news for kelp forest ecosystems.

Lastly, about how sunflower sea stars might make a comeback, according to the BBC, scientists have found 18 of them near the coast of California. Now, there is proof that the whole population of sunflower sea stars has not been fully wiped out. Hopefully, their population grows again, for the sake of kelp forests and for the organisms that rely on kelp forests.