Long Beach, CA - January 23: A baby sunflower sea star. at the Aquarium of the Pacific's behind-the-scenes abalone lab. The aquarium has partnered with academic institutions and organizations to create a "report card" detailing the status of the 30 species and that is partnering with experts from academic institutions and organizations. The aquarium said the project is an effort to refocus the status of individual species which regular people can connect to while critiquing a modern trend of taking a big-picture ecosystem approach. Many of the species in the report card can be found at the aquarium, which is also involved in helping conserve some of the ones that have declined, including white abalone and bull kelp. Photos taken at Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Moss Landing, California – Along the rugged curve of California’s Central Coast, inside a modest building near the docks of Moss Landing, a quiet experiment is underway—one that could reshape the state’s underwater ecosystems. The Sunflower Star Laboratory, an upstart citizen science project born from a diver’s garage, is now home to dozens of young sunflower sea stars: a critically endangered predator once essential to the balance of the West Coast’s marine life.
Their enemy is a familiar one. Purple sea urchins have multiplied unchecked along California’s coastal waters, devastating the region’s vital kelp forests. These urchins, once kept in check by natural predators, have surged in number since 2013, when a perfect storm of climate disruption and disease removed their biggest threat: the sunflower star. That year, a marine heat wave known as the “warm blob” settled off the West Coast. At the same time, sea star wasting syndrome—an aggressive and poorly understood disease—began sweeping through starfish populations. In the aftermath, purple urchins filled the vacuum, decimating kelp beds that once formed the backbone of nearshore marine ecosystems.
The disappearance of kelp has been more than ecological. For divers, fishermen, and coastal residents, it marked a loss of identity and of a once-familiar seascape. In the wake of that loss, Vince Christian, a recreational diver from Pebble Beach, began imagining a solution. Inspired by a research facility in Washington state that had managed to breed sunflower stars in captivity, Christian took the concept to his own community. He cleared out his garage, set up tanks, and began raising sea stars. What began as a solo project quickly snowballed into a collaborative endeavor with the support of fellow divers, biologists, and curious volunteers.
Now housed in a converted storage building in Moss Landing, the Sunflower Star Laboratory raises juvenile sea stars under controlled conditions. Their prized specimen, a 15-month-old named Titan, is already six inches wide and demonstrates a voracious appetite for urchins. But the goal goes beyond feeding demonstrations. The lab is trying to answer essential questions about how to reintroduce the species to the wild—how to keep them safe from the disease that nearly wiped them out, and how to foster reproduction in an uncertain ocean.
No release date has been set. Researchers say there is still much to learn about the disease and how the stars interact with their environment. But for now, the lab represents a fragile hope: that a citizen-powered intervention can tip the scales back toward balance—and that one day, sunflower stars will once again haunt the kelp forests they once helped sustain.
