Critically Endangered
Sunflower seastar
Pycnopodia helianthoides
Sunflower seastar is a large sea star found in the northeastern Pacific Ocean.
Appearance
Their color ranges from bright orange, yellow-red to brown, and sometimes purple, with soft, velvet-textured bodies and 5–24 arms with powerful suckers.
Researchers estimate a growth rate of 8 cm (3.1 in)/year in the first several years of life, and a rate of 2.5 cm (0.98 in)/year later.
Range and habitat
The species disappeared from its habitats in the waters off the coast of California and Oregon, and saw its population reduced by 99.2% in the waters near Washington. Ecologists using shallow-water observations and deep offshore trawl surveys found that, in their study period (2004–2017), mean biomass of sunflower sea stars declined 80–100%. Sunflower sea stars generally inhabit low subtidal and intertidal areas up to 435m deep that are rich in seaweed, kelp, sand, mud, shells, gravel, or rocky bottoms.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
In Monterey Bay, California, they may feed on dead or dying squid. Sea star appetites and food can depend on environmental factors in their habitats, such as climate, amount of prey in the area, and latitude.
Although the sunflower sea star can extend its mouth for larger prey, the stomach can extend outside the mouth to digest prey, such as abalone. Sunflower sea stars can reproduce sexually through broadcast spawning. Sunflower sea stars breed from May through June.
In crisis
Sunflower sea stars are predatory and carnivorous, feeding mostly on sea urchins, clams, sea snails, and other small invertebrates. Although the species lived across the northeast Pacific, its population rapidly declined from 2013. The sunflower sea star is classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
Since 2013, sunflower sea star populations have been in a rapid decline due to disease and changes in climate. In 2020, the IUCN first assessed that the sunflower sea star was critically endangered.
Sunflower seastar is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Sunflower seastar, Wikidata item Q1857023. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
