In Northern California, purple sea urchins are decimating kelp forests. Though the species of urchin causing problems may vary by region, the damage is the same. NNehring/iStock This article is from ...

A few weeks ago, Sarah Gravem lowered a “ravenous, terrifying predator” from her boat down to the ocean floor off Sitka. Then she released it. In a slow-motion drama, sea urchins fled as a pizza-size ...

A chain reaction ensued after the kelp forest decline. With limited grazing availability, abalone were threatened and the ...

Purple sea urchins, beware: There’s a purple urchin-eating predator on the horizon — and its name is the sunflower sea star. That’s the plot line coming from a small upstart research facility in Moss ...

The sunflower sea star (Pycnopodia helianthoides) can be found throughout intertidal and subtidal coastal waters of the northeast Pacific Ocean, from Alaska to at least northern Baja California, ...

Kelp once formed “underwater rainforests” on the California coast, but these fragile ecosystems have largely disappeared. At a marine lab near the Bay Area, scientists are trying to bring them back.

Graduate student Nikita Sridhar shows the underside of a sunflower star, with stomach protruding and urchin spines stuck to its arms. (Meredith Redick/KCAW) Alaska has no shortage of marine predators ...

Sea urchins are devouring California’s coastal kelp faster than it can reproduce, researchers said. Photo by Portuguese Gravity on Unsplash California scientists are declaring war on sea urchins. The ...

Biologists thought that marine heat waves lowered urchin reproduction only at lethal temperatures. A new study shows ...

Oregon State University biologist and diver Sarah Gravem motors past Sitka on her way to a kelp forest she is monitoring. (Photo by Jake Metzger) A few weeks ago, Sarah Gravem lowered a “ravenous, ...