Sunflower Star Laboratory 2024: A Year in Review
Starfriends,
As you are reading this column, dozens of critically-endangered juvenile sunflower stars are prowling around the wet tables in Sunflower Star Laboratory’s conservation aquaculture facility. Along with their siblings at partner institutions across California, our stars’ very existence represents the culmination of a transformational year for our team and for the greater Pycnopodia recovery community. At this time last year, Sunflower Star Laboratory (SSL) was raising bat stars and purple urchins in our proof-of-concept laboratory, while one could count on a handful of podia the number of sunflower stars that remained in aquariums in our state after the devastating spread of Sea Star Wasting Syndrome that began in 2013/14.
In the last twelve months, our team has radically accelerated the pace of sunflower star recovery in California, changing the trajectory of this vital keystone predator’s outlook and offering a source of hope for kelp forest ecosystem restoration. We’d like to take this opportunity to pull back the curtain on our year of growth, and join our starfriends in celebrating our collective ongoing progress.
A New Year and a New Home in Moss Landing
Thanks to the generous support of conservation-minded community members, in January 2024, SSL moved into a new long-term home in Moss Landing. Leading a spirited team of volunteers and interns, our lab manager Vince Christian converted a bare bones warehouse into a contemporary conservation aquaculture facility. The lab will allow us to raise large numbers of larval and juvenile sunflower stars, culture their food sources, conduct research, and share the importance of our work through on-site outreach.
A view of Sunflower Star Laboratory’s Moss Landing facility.
What a Valentine’s Day! The First Successful Spawning under Human Care of Sunflower Stars in California
As our laboratory team meticulously constructed our new facility, SSL’s Conservation Program Manager Ashley Kidd helped facilitate a landmark moment in sunflower star conservation. On February 14th, SSL joined other California partners, including California Academy of Sciences, Aquarium of the Pacific, and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance at the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography to spawn and distribute fertilized eggs from adult sunflower stars held at the aquarium. With limited numbers of reproductive adults in the state, and restrictions on importing stars, this effort was only a success because of sunflower star practitioners that have come before us. Since 2019, the Nature Conservancy of California and their collaboration with Dr. Jason Hodin and team at Friday Harbor Laboratories (FHL), University of Washington, have produced consecutive cohorts of sunflower stars, to describe the early life histories of sunflower stars and forge a path to culturing this species for research and recovery. With the support and encouragement from these partners, the greater Pycnopodia Recovery Working Group, and the AZA SAFE Sunflower Sea Star program (SAFE SSS), we have been able to provide a critical first step to support a California recovery plan.
SSL’s Conservation Aquaculture Program Manager Ashley Kidd examines sunflower star eggs to see if they are fertilized during the 2/14/24 spawning event. Courtesy of Jordann Tomasek, Birch Aquarium.
The adult stars were housed in California prior to the 2013/14 wasting event, and constituted some of the last Pycnopodia remaining in our state. This spawning enabled our group to disseminate larvae to collaborators, exponentially increasing the institutional knowledge and experience in raising this species across the state. After Vince and our lab team brought our recirculating systems online in May, SSL received hundreds of these newly settled juvenile sunflower stars from their temporary home at Moss Landing Marine Labs, where they had developed through their planktonic larval stage.
A juvenile sunflower star crawls along the face of a rock in its tank at SSL’s conservation aquaculture facility.
A Season of Building Partnerships and Community
Sunflower Star Laboratory continued its role as a key facilitator of sunflower star conservation across partner institutions in June, when Conservation Program Manager Ashley joined forces with the SAFE SSS and FHL to host a first-of-its-kind Echinoderm Academy. Researchers and aquarists from all over the world gathered at the Echinoderm Academy to engage with FHL’s Pycnopodia conservation aquaculture program, conduct hands-on workshops with juvenile sea stars, network, and exchange knowledge on sea star aquaculture. The Echinoderm Academy was free to SAFE participants through the generous support of our sponsors.
International participants and hosts of the Echinoderm Academy pose for a group photo on the Friday Harbor Laboratory dock during their workshop. Thanks to our sponsors who covered all workshop fees to make the workshop accessible to all. Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium / Paul Selvaggio,
Meanwhile, to increase capacity for our sea stars’ care and further our commitment to building a more inclusive aquaculture community, Sunflower Star Laboratory strengthened our partnership with fellow non-profit Minorities in Aquaculture to provide two paid lab opportunities through their internship program. Beginning in July, Mariana Jimenez & Melissa Andrade adeptly stepped into these roles, joining fellow interns Sophie Lord and Cailley Gerald-Yamasaki in providing critical care for juvenile stars and maintaining laboratory systems.
Our interns, under the guidance of our scientific lab committee, designed and conducted an experiment analyzing the comparative growth rates of Pycnopodia fed three different feeding treatments at our laboratory, with Intern Aquaculture Researcher Cailley presenting this novel research alongside Board Directors at the 2024 Western Society of Naturalist Conference in November.
The strides made by our laboratory team were mirrored by the launch of our onsite outreach program, shepherded by Volunteer Outreach Coordinator Maryjanna Drummond and Board Director Laura Allen. Our cohort of trained outreach volunteers has interpreted the importance of sunflower star conservation to thousands of lab visitors while fundraising for our work through merchandise sales. Our Board of Directors built on this momentum through community and digital outreach, appearing at local events, presenting at internationally-recognized speaker series, and giving interviews for print, television, and podcast journalists to spread the gospel of sea stars.
The Stars Align for 2025: New Staff, the Passing of the Torch, and Renewed Dedication to Our Mission
As Sunflower Star Laboratory prepares for the year ahead, we are buoyed by a remarkable capacity-building development that will greatly accelerate our organization’s growth. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) California has been recommended to receive $18 million over three years to launch the Pacific Coast Ocean Restoration Initiative (PCOR), a comprehensive, collaborative statewide effort aimed at restoring and recovering degraded marine ecosystems across California. This funding will enable SSL and a coalition of partners spanning the state to help recover the sunflower star.
Running a conservation aquaculture facility for the critically-endangered sunflower star requires extensive effort, and the ability to concurrently employ multiple aquaculture staff will be crucial to ensuring consistency of care for our laboratory. Aquaculture expert Andrew Kim is joining the staff of Sunflower Star Laboratory as our new Laboratory Manager. To help SSL meet our staffing needs, the Valhalla Foundation has generously supported the creation of a new laboratory technician / lab volunteer coordinator position, filled by our former Minorities in Aquaculture intern Mariana Jimenez.
Andrew Kim and Mariana Jimenez after adding additional protective measures for stars and humans in response to the nearby lithium ion battery storage facility fire in Moss Landing - an exciting week 2 on the job.
None of this work would have been possible without the Herculean effort that Vince Christian has invested into our lab and its mission. Vince has devoted an astonishing amount of time to the demanding aquaculture realm to help the kelp forest ecosystems he has explored, studied and monitored over the past 40 years. Vince has maintained incredible stamina, positivity and dedication throughout the first 3 years of SSL’s growth. With the addition of our new laboratory manager Andrew Kim, Vince will appreciatively take a step back in the coming year from lab management and lab volunteer oversight, and looks forward to being the ‘expert lab volunteer’ with his lab partner, Board Director and SSL’s first lab volunteer Rosie Arathoon.
Lab volunteers and interns wish Minorities in Aquaculture intern Melissa Andrade farewell.
We are also excited to welcome a new Starfriend to our board of directors. Terry Feinberg is an avid diver and marketing and non-profit management professional with extensive experience serving on non-profit boards, including the Death Valley Natural History Association, the American Cetacean Society, and the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce. He witnessed the devastating impact of sea star wasting syndrome first hand and is looking forward to supporting our mission to protect the diversity of coastal ecosystems.
Significant challenges remain as we further our mission to restore the sunflower star and save our kelp forests. But the groundswell of support from our volunteers, donors, and advocates that has launched our organization continues to inspire our work.
From everyone at Sunflower Star Laboratory, thank you for making our stardreams possible.
Best starfishes,
Reuven Bank, Board Chair
Sunflower Star Laboratory
