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“It just sort of breaks your heart to see a species decline so rapidly to the point of extinction,” Rumrill said. Native American leader and advocate for tribal sovereignty Joe A. Without them, sea urchin populations have exploded, causing a troubling decline in kelp forests that provide food and shelter to many aquatic species along the West Coast.

The sea stars, which are among the largest in the world and can span more than 3 feet (91 centimeters), are predators to the kelp-eating sea urchin. Steven Rumrill, shellfish program leader at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said in his more than 40 years as a marine scientist, he hasn’t seen a widespread decline of a species on the same scale as the sunflower sea star. A petition to list the species under the federal Endangered Species Act was filed in 2021. The decline triggered the International Union for Conservation of Nature to classify the species as critically endangered in 2020.

(AP) - Scientists along the West Coast are calling for action to help sunflower sea stars, among the largest sea stars in the world, recover from catastrophic population declines.Įxperts say a sea star wasting disease epidemic that began in 2013 has decimated about 95% of the population from the Aleutian Islands of Alaska to Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, The Astorian reported.