Animals
Sunflower Sea Star
Sunflower Sea Star
Sunflower Stars are some of the largest sea stars in the world, reaching up to 40 inches wide — about the size of a bike tire! With hundreds of tube feet, they move, feed and stick to surfaces at speeds over 40 inches per minute. These predators play a key role in the Giant Kelp Forests of the Eastern Pacific Ocean, keeping urchin populations in check. Sunflower Stars can grow up to 24 arms and regenerate lost limbs, even forming a new body from a single arm if it's connected to their central nervous system!
Saving These Stars
Sunflower Stars have been hit hard by sea star wasting disease that’s swept across the West Coast for the past decade. It's estimated that more than five billion Sunflower Stars have died from this disease. Birch Aquarium is part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) SAFE Sunflower Sea Star Program and works with other partners on critical work to save these sea stars from extinction. Through this partnership, we have spawned over 4,000 babies with our partner facilities, bringing hope for the future of the species.
Conservation Collaboration
Sunflower Sea Stars have been severely impacted by sea star wasting disease, which has devastated populations along the West Coast for the past decade. But there's hope. A dedicated team of experts — including Birch Aquarium’s own Husbandry Team — are working together to save this remarkable sea star and the ecosystems that rely on them.
On Valentine’s Day 2024, Birch Aquarium and its California partners celebrated a major milestone in sea star recovery — successfully spawning and cross-fertilizing Sunflower Sea Stars for the first time. This success marks another incredible step forward in an ongoing collaborative effort to save the species from extinction. You can now get an up-close look at a few of these juvenile sea stars from the "Cupid Cohort" in the nursery habitats of Living Seas!
This advancement took place at Birch Aquarium, where their experts were joined by partners from the Aquarium of the Pacific, California Academy of Sciences, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (SDZWA) and the Sunflower Star Laboratory.
This collaboration is part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) SAFE Sunflower Sea Star Program, co-led by the Aquarium of the Pacific and Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium. It also contributes to a comprehensive, multi-faceted, multi-partner “Roadmap to Recovery” — led by The Nature Conservancy — to help accelerate the recovery of this species along the West Coast.