Progress Toward Complete Life-Cycle Culturing of the Endangered Sunflower Star, .

AbstractUntil recently, the sunflower star, , was a dominant and common predator in a wide variety of benthic habitats in the northeast Pacific. Then, in 2013, its populations began to plummet across its entire range as a result of the spread of a phenomenon known as sea star wasting disease, or sea star wasting. Although dozens of sea star species were impacted by this wasting event, seems to have suffered the greatest losses and is now listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as the first critically endangered sea star.