Ashley Kidd joined a Zoom call a bit late, bubbling with excitement about a recent twist in a project focused on critically endangered sunflower sea stars. Kidd, who works as a conservation project manager at the Sunflower Star Laboratory near Monterey Bay, shared that six male sea stars had unexpectedly begun spawning just before her team was scheduled to arrive at an aquarium in Alaska.
The team’s original plan was to inject the sunflower sea stars at the aquarium with a hormone to induce spawning. They would then collect sperm, along with ten live adult stars and larvae, to bring back to California. With the spontaneous spawning, Kidd noted that they now had plenty of sperm ready to use when they arrived.
This mission is part of a larger effort involving multiple institutions to revive a species that is crucial for the health of kelp forests. Scientists only recently discovered how important these sea stars are to maintaining these ecosystems, especially after a mysterious disease wiped out nearly 94% of their population in just a few years. The disease, linked to a marine heat wave in 2013, decimated the sunflower sea stars along the Pacific Coast, leading to a dramatic increase in purple urchin populations. These urchins are known to consume kelp, which is vital for many marine species and plays a significant role in carbon capture.
Norah Eddy, an associate director at the Nature Conservancy in California, emphasized that restoring the sunflower sea star population could help revive the kelp forests. A single breeding pair can produce thousands of offspring, potentially helping to control the urchin population. However, after the initial collapse, the sunflower sea star population has struggled to recover on its own.
In recent years, progress has been made in breeding these sea stars in captivity, with a notable spawning event at the Birch Aquarium last year marking a significant breakthrough. The successful breeding efforts have led to the raising of healthy young stars across various institutions in California.
Currently, all juvenile sunflower sea stars in California are closely related, which poses a challenge for their future release into the wild. To address this, researchers plan to bring ten sunflower sea stars from the Alaska SeaLife Center to California, which will help increase the genetic diversity of the population here.
The transfer of these sea stars is a significant step, as it involves collaboration between officials in both Alaska and California. This effort not only aims to boost the local population of sunflower sea stars but also sets the stage for future transfers from other states to further diversify the species.
Researchers are motivated by the high stakes involved. If the sunflower sea stars can help manage urchin populations, the kelp forests could begin to recover, benefiting both the ecosystem and the economy. Kelp forests capture carbon at rates much higher than terrestrial forests and provide habitat for numerous marine species.
While the release of lab-raised sunflower sea stars into the ocean is still a few years away, scientists are hopeful. They need to address key research questions, particularly regarding the sea star wasting disease that has caused such devastation in the past. Depending on the outcomes of ongoing studies, reintroducing these stars to the Pacific could happen within three to five years.