A Sunflower Star next to a Sunburst Anemone on a rock covered in pink & green algae during a -2.7 low tide along the Mendocino Coast.

My favorite photo from 2025. 🌟 -2.7 tide!
The only consistent Sunflower Star seen off the Mendocino Coast since the Star Wasting Disease killed millions of Stars along the West Coast since 2013.
Next to a Sunburst Anemone. 💞

Hang in there little one! #sunflowerstar
#marinelife #norcal #photography

They are writing a machine-learning system to "facially" recognize each individual #sunflowerstar immediately. So they can track the growth of these lab-grown creatures after they relocate to the wild. (Work from Friday Harbor labs - UW)

Researchers believe they have discovered what killed billions of sea stars off the Oregon and west coasts • Lincoln Chronicle Researchers believe they have discovered what killed billions of sea stars off the Oregon and west coasts

lincolnchronicle.org/researchers-... #elakha #elakhaalliance #IUCN #kelpforest #oregoncoast #reintroduction #seaotters #seastar #seastarwastingdisease #seaurchin #seaurchins #sunflowerstar #vibriopectenicida

Underwater shot of Purple Urchin in the foreground, a now rare yellow Sunflower Sea Star in the middle & Anemone’s in pink & green in the background along the intertidal zone of the Mendocino Coast. In 2013, sea star wasting syndrome (SSWS) began devastating sea star populations along the west coast of North America, with sunflower stars (Pycnopodia helianthoides) becoming locally extinct in the shallow coastal waters where they served as a keystone predator, protecting kelp forests from overgrazing by urchins. Since then, many complex kelp forest ecosystems have become low-biodiversity urchin barrens. In collaboration with universities, aquariums, and research laboratories, Sunflower Star Laboratory aims to develop methods and mobilize resources to grow sunflower stars at the scale needed for recovery

#earth #blueskyartshow #sunflowerstar 🌟

Once abundant, this is the only Sunflower Star recorded off the Mendocino Coast in the last 2 years.

See Alt Text for more information.

A large sunflower sea star is crawling across an Aquarium tank, its body and arms halfway in frame. The underside is visible, lined by thousands of tiny tendrils called tube feet.

You know what day it is! (Tubesday!)

#Tubesday #Tubefeet #Echinoderms #SunflowerStar #Pycnopodia #OregonCoast #OregonCoastAquarium

Sunflower star maintained for conservation breeding at Friday Harbor Labs by Dr Jason Hodin

Sunflower star baby grown at Friday Harbor Labs by Jason Hodin

Loved doing this interview about captive breeding and conservation of #sunflowerstars with the sunflower star aquarist @montereyaq.bsky.social and a chat about my upcoming book, The Ocean's Menagerie.
www.instagram.com/p/DGv7c5ayP7Q

#marinelife #sunflowerstar #conservation #ocean #invertebrate